^'J 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 


VIOLET  R.  MARKHAM 


"That  which  was  to  be  done  by  rvar  and  arms  in  Latium 
has  now  been  fully  accomplished  by  the  bounty  of  the  gods 
and  the  valour  of  the  soldiers.  The  armies  of  the  enemy 
have  been  cut  down.  .  .  .  It  now  remains  to  be  considered 
how  we  may  keep  them  in  the  observance  of  perpetual 
peace.  .  .  .  Ye  can  therefore  ensure  to  yourselves  per- 
petual peace  so  far  as  the  Latins  are  concerned,  either  by 
adopting  severe  or  conciliatory  measures.  Do  ye  choose 
to  take  harsh  measures  against  people  who  have  sur- 
rendered and  who  have  been  conquered?  Ye  may  destroy 
all  Latium.  .  .  .  Do  ye  wish  to  follow  the  example  of  your 
forefathers  and  augment  the  power  of  Rome  by  conferring 
the  citizenship  on  the  people  you  have  beaten?  Materials 
for  extending  your  power  by  the  highest  glory  are  at  hand. 
.  .  .  But  zi'hatcver  determination  ye  wish  to  come  to,  it  is 
necessary  tluit  it  be  speedy.  So  many  states  have  ye  in  a 
condition  of  suspense  between  hope  and  fear." 

Livy  via.  13. 


WATCHING   ON   THE 
RHINE 


BY 
VIOLET   R.  MARKHAM 

AUTHOR    OF    "south    AFRICA    PAST   AND    PRESENT,' 
"the   south  AFRICAN   SCENE,"   ETC. 


NEW  ^^iS^  YORK 
GEORGE  H.    DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1921. 
BY  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


601 

FOREWORD 

"Here  then  will  we  begin  the  story:  only 
adding  thus  much  to  that  which  hath  been  said, 
that  it  is  a  foolish  thing  to  make  a  long  prologue 
and  to  be  short  in  the  story  itself." 


1713419 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I  PA8K 

The  Approach ii 

CHAPTER  n 
Cologne  and  the  Occupation 20 

CHAPTER  HI 
The  Kolner  Dom 42 

CHAPTER  IV 
On  the  Dom  Platz 54 

CHAPTER  V 
Billets        65 

CHAPTER  VI 
Christmas  in  Cologne 76 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Bergische  Land 83 

CHAPTER  VIII 
In  Search  of  a  Fishing 95 

CHAPTER  IX 
Who  Pays? 104 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  X 

PAGE 

Certain  Cities  AND  THE  Saar  Basin    .....     119 

CHAPTER  XI 
From  Metz  to  Verdun [•:     139 

CHAPTER  XH 
In  Alsace ,     .     156 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Some  Electioneering  Impressions      .     .     .     ,     .     172 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Hatred <,     .     206 

CHAPTER  XV 
The  German  View  of  England    ...#..     223 

CriAPTER  XVI 
Watchman — What  of  the  Night?    .,*.,.     247 


WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 


WATCHING  ON  THE 
RHINE 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  APPROACH 
July  1919 

Four  a.  m,  :  the  slowly  moving  engine  comes  to  a  stand- 
still with  a  jolt  which  wakes  me  from  the  uneasy  half- 
sleep  of  a  train  journey.  I  lift  a  corner  of  the  blind  and 
look  out.  It  is  the  grey  hour  before  the  dawn,  when 
night  still  wrestles  with  morning  for  the  possession  of 
the  coming  day.  A  ruined  building  lit  up  by  a  station 
flare  stares  at  me  stark  and  desolate.  In  the  quarter 
light  a  long  street  of  battered  houses  is  also  dimly  visible. 
Lille  !  We  have  come  through  the  worst  of  the  devastated 
area  in  the  night,  but  the  hall-mark  of  the  invader  lies 
stamped  on  the  big  industrial  town,  the  very  name  of 
which  is  associated  henceforth  with  suspense,  with 
anguish,  with  triumph.  The  military  train  begins  to 
move  again  cautiously  over  temporary  bridges  and  a 
permanent  way  not  as  yet  permanently  repaired.  We 
are  far  removed  from  the  days  when  continental  ex- 
presses and  sleeping-cars  swept  in  a  few  hours  from 
one  capital  to  another.    The  miracle  is  to  be  in  this  slow- 

II 


12  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

moving  train  at  all  which  links  the  British  base  in  France 
with  the  occupied  German  area.  Ruined  houses  look  in 
through  the  window,  phantom  buildings  of  which  nothing 
but  the  outer  walls  remain.  Yet,  as  I  strain  my  eyes  in 
the  dim  light,  I  see  something  else;  something  which 
was  not  visible  when  I  last  visited  a  devastated  area  in 
March — here  and  there  a  house  already  rebuilt,  stacks 
of  bricks  neatly  piled,  rubbish  sifted  and  cleared,  stones 
laid  in  order  for  the  mason's  hand.  Yes,  there  has  been 
"cleaning  up''  during  the  last  five  months — the  most 
tragic  cleaning  up  which  can  ever  befall  a  nation.  And 
clearly  France,  with  her  amazing  energy  and  recuperative 
powers,  has  already  flung  herself  into  the  task  of  repair- 
ing the  desolate  places.  It  is  a  grim  and  mighty  task 
which  awaits  our  Ally. 

Stricken  though  the  towns,  the  land,  desolate,  barren, 
uncultivated,  has  a  pathos  all  its  own.  As  we  move  ever 
eastwards  and  the  dawn  comes  up  in  the  sky,  the  naked- 
ness of  the  fields  invaded  by  coarse  grass  and  weeds 
symbolises  the  sufferings  of  France.  But  in  the  growing 
light  evidences  appear  in  the  fields  of  the  same  brave  spirit 
which  is  reclaiming  the  towns.  Here  and  there  a  half- 
destroyed  farmhouse  has  been  patched  up,  and  a  thin 
cloud  of  smoke  rises  from  the  battered  chimney.  Across 
the  silent  fields  a  team  of  horses  is  being  led  out  to  work ; 
a  woman  drives  out  her  cows  or  is  seen  surrounded  by 
clamorous  poultry.  France  may  be  sorely  wounded,  but 
the  spirit  of  France  cannot  be  destroyed.  France,  for  all 
her  losses,  has  hope  in  her  heart,  and  amid  the  desolation 
of  war,  hope,  like  some  beautiful  flower,  blossoms  once 
again. 

Eastward,  always  eastward,  for  we  are  bound  through 


THE  APPROACH  13 

the  lands  of  the  conquering  victim  to  those  of  the  humbled 
oppressor.    With  every  mile  the  visible  signs  of  war  grow 
less,  though  houses  and  buildings  along  the  railway  show 
marks  of  gunfire  long  after  the  land  has  regained  its 
normal  aspect.     First  and  last,  districts  through  which 
the  railways  pass  have  suffered  most  both  in  advance  and 
retreat ;  a  fact  to  which  the  scarred  stations  bear  witness. 
By  the  time  the  sun  is  shining  brightly  we  have  passed 
beyond  the  outer  fringes  of  desolation  and  are  again  in  a 
prosperous-looking  land.      The  sight  of  Maubeuge  re- 
called many  an  anxious  moment  during  the  great  German 
invasion  of  19 14.    Outwardly  the  town  appeared  to  have 
suffered  but  little.    As  we  crossed  the  Belgian  frontier  a 
general  view  of  the  country  as  seen  from  the  carriage 
windows  conveyed  the  same  impression.     The  soil  was 
well  cultivated,  the  houses  in  good  order.     There  are  no 
evidences  of  the  presence  of  a  hostile  army  beyond  the 
occasional  destruction  of  a  bridge  blown  up  during  the 
German  retreat.     The  spiritual  yoke  of  an  enemy  occu- 
pation for  four  and  a  half  years  must  have  been  intol- 
erable, but  material  damage  was  clearly  confined  to  the 
first  and  last  days  of  the  war.     And  Belgium  has  the 
matter  in  hand.      She  is  at  work,  working,  working  all 
the   time.      From   countless   buildings  the   Belgian   flag 
waving  in  the  sunshine  proclaimed  the  glad  tidings  of  a 
land  released  from  its  invaders  and  restored  to  its  original 
place  among  nations.    The  little  valleys  of  the  Ardennes, 
the  factory  chimneys  of  Liege,  seem  at  one  in  telling  the 
same  tale  of  liberty  regained.     There  is  an  indescribable 
air  of  gaiety  among  the  people  on  the  roadside,  a  sense 
of  laughter  and  merry-making.     Aerschot,  Dinant,  Lou- 
vain  would,  of  course,  tell  a  different  tale,  but  in  southern 


14  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

Belgium  it  would  seem  that  the  grip  of  the  invader  was 
of  a  different  quality  from  his  strangle-hold  on  France. 

Still  eastward,  and  now  with  a  thrill  of  indescribable 
emotion  we  find  ourselves  at  Herbesthal,  the  German 
frontier.  Before  us  in  the  sunshine  lie  the  broad  fertile 
plains  of  the  people  whose  rulers  have  deluged  the  world 
with  blood  and  tears.  One  remembers  with  bowed  head 
^he  many  million  lives  laid  down  before  we  handful  of 
British  folk  could  journey  thus  far  into  the  country  of  the 
enemy  who  had  challenged  our  very  existence.  With  the 
memory  of  shattered  and  devastated  France  before  our 
eyes,  we  think  with  sternness  no  punishment  can  be  too 
severe  in  expiation  of  the  crime  under  whose  consequences 
the  world  is  staggering  to-day.  A  train-load  of  German 
prisoners,  homeward  bound,  runs  into  the  station.  They 
cheer,  not  very  loudly  or  energetically,  it  is  true,  but 
nevertheless  they  cheer  as  once  again  they  touch  the  soil 
of  the  Fatherland.  From  the  windows  we  catch  sight 
of  eager,  excited  faces  among  the  shabby  men  in  their 
faded  uniforms.  Insensibly  the  heart  softens.  They  too 
have  gone  through  hardship  and  suffering,  just  ordinary 
men  glad  to  be  home  again,  eager  to  see  wife  and  child 
and  sweetheart.  And  then,  as  the  train  rolls  forward,  sud- 
denly on  the  threshold  of  the  enemy's  land  comes  the 
remembrance  of  those  noble  words,  one  of  the  few  great 
utterances  which  illumine  the  darkness  and  the  passions 
of  war,  "Patriotism  is  not  enough,  I  must  have  no  hatred 
or  bitterness  in  my  heart." 

The  hands  of  brutal  men  could  not  touch  the  serenity 
of  Edith  Cavell's  soul.  On  the  threshold  of  a  cruel 
death  her  spirit  had  soared  above  the  hideous  welter  of 
passion  and  brutality  all  around.    She  saw  these  things  in 


THE  APPROACH  15 

the  light  of  eternity;  saw  also  the  ultimate  good  of  life 
express  itself,  not  in  the  narrow  terms  of  race,  but  in 
abiding  spiritual  values.  The  demand  for  vengeance 
which  followed  on  her  death  has  to  a  large  extent  obscured 
the  greatness  of  her  message.  Yet  Edith  Cavell  indicated 
expressly  that  vengeance  was  not  the  way.  No  indi- 
vidual during  the  war  has  thrown  a  ray  of  light  more 
clear  on  the  turmoil  of  the  struggle.  But  the  path  she 
trod  is  not  an  easy  one,  and  many  who  honour  her  name 
shrink  from  a  task  of  self-conquest  so  great  as  what  she 
indicates.  ...  No  hatred  and  no  bitterness :  and  we  are 
English  people  crossing  the  German  frontier  for  the  first 
time  after  the  war.  .  .  .  What  has  Edith  Cavell  to  say 
to  each  one  of  us? 

Aix-la-Chapelle — Aachen — ^with  its  memories  of  Char- 
lemagne, King  of  the  Franks,  lies  some  ten  miles  within 
the  German  frontier.  Few  outward  signs  of  its  venerable 
history  survive  in  the  busy  manufacturing  centre  of  to- 
day. The  cathedral,  founded  by  Charlemagne,  where  the 
ashes  of  the  great  monarch  lie  buried,  rises — an  incon- 
gruous and  protesting  relic — among  factories,  tall  chim- 
neys, and  all  the  ugly  apparatus  of  modern  industry. 
Aachen  is  in  Belgian  occupation,  and  we  stare  from  our 
carriage  windows  at  a  mixed  throng  of  Belgian  soldiers, 
British  Tommies,  and  German  civilians,  with  whom  the 
station  is  crowded. 

It  is  a  little  difficult  to  express  in  words  the  conflict 
of  feelings  in  your  mind  as  you  enter  Germany.  You 
are  certainly  prepared  for  something  dramatic.  It  is 
almost  with  a  shock  you  realise  that  German  civilians  are 
not  equipped  with  hoofs  and  horns  or  other  attributes  of 
a  Satanic  character.     After  all,  they  look  just  like  any 


16  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

one  else:  tidy,  well-dressed,  self-respecting  people — the 
typical  German  crowd  of  old  days.  But  certainly  you 
expected  to  see  some  outward  and  visible  signs  of  mili- 
tary occupation,  apart  from  the  familiar  sight  of  khaki 
soldiers;  visions  of  a  Germany  bristling  with  guns;  of 
burgomasters  and  high  officials  walking  about  with 
halters,  actual  or  metaphorical,  round  their  necks;  of  a 
sullen,  conquered  people  casting  looks  of  hatred  on  con- 
querors who  move  among  them  in  no  small  peril  of  their 
lives.  If  such  is  the  anticipation,  it  proves  to  be  ludi- 
crously remote  from  the  reality.  The  outstanding  fact  in 
the  occupied  territory,  and  one  which  fills  an  English 
visitor  with  ever-growing  amazement,  is  the  complete 
acquiescence  of  the  Germans  in  the  situation.  Life  is 
astonishingly  normal.  Khaki  soldiers  have  replaced 
grey-coated  soldiers.  Otherwise  everything  seems  to 
go  on  exactly  as  before.  These  amazing  people,  out- 
wardly at  least,  do  not  appear  to  mind  that  their  country 
is  occupied  by  hostile  armies.  The  Germans  on  the  Aachen 
platform  were  moving  about  and  talking  in  a  placid,  un- 
disturbed manner.  Their  indifference  to  the  British  and 
Belgian  soldiers  appeared  to  be  absolute.  A  picture  rose 
before  my  eyes  of  an  English  station  occupied  by  Ger- 
man troops:  would  equal  apathy  and  indifference  have 
been  shown  under  such  conditions?  In  this  as  in  many 
other  respects  the  German  psychology  is  a  riddle  to  which 
no  answer  seems  forthcoming,  and  it  is  a  riddle  the  per- 
plexity of  which  will  be  found  to  deepen  with  every  hour 
spent  in  the  occupied  territory. 

Between  Aachen  and  Cologne  the  train  runs  through 
a  district  rich  in  natural  resources,  both  mineral  and  agri- 
cultural.    We  pass  many  large  factories  of  modern  con- 


THE  ArPROACH  17 

struction  in  which,  thanks  to  smoke-saving  apparatus,  the 
dirt  of  our  own  industrial  districts  has  been  avoided. 
Those  factories  are  not  idle.  It  is  true  not  every  large 
chimney  is  smoking,  but  some  chimneys  in  every  group 
show  that  work  is  going  on.  The  Rhineland  industries 
are  to  a  large  extent  independent  of  imported  material, 
and  the  activities  in  this  district  cannot  be  taken  as  an 
index  to  the  rest  of  Germany.  Similarly  with  the  soil. 
Agricultural  experts  tell  us  that  taken  as  a  whole  the  soil 
of  Germany  is  naturally  poor.  Only  immense  scientific 
care  and  attention  made  it  possible  in  pre-war  days  for 
the  land  to  yield  85  per  cent,  of  the  nation's  food.  But 
here  in  the  Rhineland  the  quality  of  the  crops  must  strike 
the  most  casual  traveller.  With  the  thin  English  harvest 
in  mind,  I  can  only  marvel  at  these  bumper  crops — the 
thick  yellow  corn,  the  potatoes,  the  roots,  the  mealies,  the 
general  impression  of  agricultural  prosperity.  The  land 
is  in  perfect  order.  Every  twig  looks  as  though  it  had 
been  put  in  splints.  Whatever  else  has  suffered,  prisoners' 
labour,  or  labour  of  some  kind,  has  kept  the  land  clean 
and  in  order.  Compare  the  large  areas  of  devastation 
in  France  with  this  fat,  smiling  country  bearing  no  visible 
signs  of  any  kind  of  war,  and  the  bitterness  in  many 
French  hearts  seems  very  natu'-al.  It  is  difficult  to  asso- 
ciate stories  of  want  and  starvation  with  a  rich  country 
like  this.  Yet  it  was  quite  clear  that  at  the  last  Germany 
was  brought  to  her  knees  by  hunger.  The  surface  im- 
pression of  prosperity  in  one  particular  district  may  be 
misleading — the  reality  may  prove  on  closer  acquaintance 
to  be  of  grimmer  stuff ! 

Already  a  hundred  questions  beset  my  mind  as  Cologne 
Cathedral  comes  into  sight.    There  is  something  typically 


18  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

German  about  the  unwieldy  appearance  of  the  Kolner 
Dom  crowned  with  its  preposterous  spires.  Many  years 
had  passed  since  I  was  last  in  Cologne.  As  the  line  ran 
through  the  clean,  well-built  suburbs,  I  remembered 
vaguely  an  hotel  on  the  Dom  Platz,  and  a  general  im- 
pression of  tall,  robust  men  drinking  beer  and  eating 
large  meals.  From  a  dusty  shelf  in  memory's  cupboard 
came  the  recollection  of  some  careless  remark  made  to  an 
English  friend — I  hoped  there  would  never  be  war  be- 
tween England  and  Germany,  because  judging  by  the 
physique  of  the  men,  war  with  them  would  be  no  trifling 
affair.  .  .  . 

The  train  has  drawn  up  in  the  fine  Haupt  Bahnhof. 
Two  W.A.A.C.  administrators,  courteous  and  business- 
like, examine  tickets  and  visas.  A  large  German  stand- 
ing meekly,  hat  in  hand,  before  the  fair-haired  English 
girl  stamping  his  pass  is  eloquent  as  to  some  lessons  taught 
by  the  Occupation.  Amazing  is  the  scene  which  breaks 
on  the  traveller  on  emerging  from  the  railway  station. 
Khaki-clad  soldiers  swarm  in  every  direction.  Soldiers, 
soldiers ;  they  overflow  the  railway  station,  the  square,  the 
Hohenzollern  bridge.  The  Dom  rises  grim  and  protest- 
ing from  a  sea  of  khaki.  Government  lorries  lumber 
down  the  streets;  the  square  in  front  of  the  Excelsior 
Hotel,  where  a  modest  Union  Jack  over  the  door  proclaims 
the  presence  of  G.H.Q.,  is  crowded  with  cars.  Every 
branch  of  the  service  is  here  in  force.  Uniformed  women 
on  whom  the  Boche  gazes  with  peculiar  annoyance  are 
common.  Selected  W.A.A.C.  administrators  are  carry- 
ing on  responsible  work  of  various  kinds.  Searching  Ger- 
man women  passengers  whose  clothes  are  found  to  be 


THE  APPROACH  19 

stuffed  with  sausages  must  have  its  humours  as  well  as 
its  drawbacks. 

The  W.R.A,F.  is  here  as  a  force.  Army  nurses  in 
red  and  grey  and  the  blue  of  the  V.A.D.'s  vary  the 
monotony  of  the  prevalent  mustard  colour.  Here  and 
there  one  sees  the  blue  headdress  of  a  British  Empire 
Leave  Club  worker,  the  girls  who  do  much  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  Thomas  Atkins  in  a  foreign  town. 
Y.M.C.A.,  Church  Army,  and  half  a  dozen  other  organ- 
isations are  all  to  the  fore.  Atkins  must  be  a  much- 
amused  man  with  so  many  willing  workers  to  cater  for  his 
needs.  This  is  the  Army  of  Occupation  as  it  came  up 
from  the  fields  of  victory  over  200,000  strong.  Large 
numbers  of  troops  are  quartered,  not  only  in  Cologne, 
but  throughout  the  occupied  area  and  the  bridgehead. 
But  demobilisation  has  already  laid  its  hand  on  this  great 
force.  The  sluices  are  drawn  and  civilian  life  will  shortly 
reclaim  the  lads  who  crowd  the  town  and  area.  It  is  a 
wonderful  sight  to  have  seen,  a  wonderful  moment  in 
history  to  have  experienced.  The  German  goes  about 
his  work  in  the  middle  of  this  English  crowd  apparently 
as  unconcerned  as  his  fellow-countrymen  at  Aachen  and 
Diiren.  But  what  at  heart  is  he  thinking  of  it  all?  What 
actions  and  reactions  are  likely  to  result  from  this  strange 
assembly  of  people  thrown  together  by  the  compelling 
force  of  the  sword  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine? 


CHAPTER  II 
COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION 

During  the  war  we  thought  and  talked  with  anguish 
daily  of  that  line  of  trenches  stretching  from  Switzerland 
to  the  sea  where  men  suffered  and  died.  Even  the  most 
unimaginative  were  stirred  to  emotion  by  stories  of  the 
strange  semi-subterranean  existence  which  modern  condi- 
tions of  warfare  had  imposed  on  the  armies  of  Europe. 
To-day  another  line  stretches  for  a  distance  nearly  as 
great  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  but  the  men  compos- 
ing it  are  no  longer  compelled  to  dwell  as  troglodytes. 
The  German  word  for  Armistice,  "Waffenstillstand," 
literally  "the  standing  still  of  the  weapons,"  expresses 
very  graphically  the  conditions  under  which  the  Armies 
of  Occupation  live.  The  line  has  moved  east  from  the 
horrors  and  desolation  of  devastated  France  to  the  rich 
provinces  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  Cannons  are 
silent;  bombs  drop  no  more.  But  the  weapons,  though 
standing  still,  are  there,  and  determine  the  strange  exist- 
ence which  we  Allies  lead  among  a  conquered  people. 

Along  the  line  of  the  Rhine,  therefore,  lie  the  armies  of 
the  conquering  powers  in  a  peace  their  guns  have  ensured 
and  maintain.  The  French  hold  the  southern  end  with 
their  headquarters  at  Mainz,  and  Wiesbaden,  most  at- 
tractive of  spas,  as  a  centre  of  refreshment  in  the  lighter 
moments  of  life.  Next  come  the  Americans  at  Coblenz, 
then  the  English  at  Cologne,  finally  the  Belgians  in  the 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION         21 

north.  As  time  has  gone  on  the  EngHsh  occupation  has 
become  smaller  and  smaller,  while  the  French  has  in- 
creased proportionately.  Nobody  quite  knows  what 
position  the  Americans  hold  at  Coblenz,  for  America  has 
not  signed  the  Peace  Treaty,  and  her  forces  remain  in 
theory  entirely  independent  of  obligations  which  apply 
to  the  signatory  powers.  But,  thanks  to  the  wise  and 
statesmanlike  guidance  of  the  American  Commander-in- 
Chief,  General  Allen,  an  anomalous  position  has  in  prac- 
tice worked  without  friction. 

As  for  the  life  we  lead  in  Occupied  Germany,  cer- 
tainly during  the  early  days  very  few  people  at  home  were 
able  to  appreciate  the  measure  of  its  comfort  and  security. 
On  returning  to  England  for  the  first  time  on  a  visit 
from  Cologne,  I  was  met  by  many  anxious  inquiries  from 
friends  and  relatives.  Was  it  really  safe  for  me  to  be 
in  such  a  place?  Of  course  I  never  walked  about  the 
town  alone?  Did  the  Germans  spit  at  me?  Perhaps  out 
of  fear  they  repressed  that  natural  inclination,  but  of 
course  they  were  as  insolent  as  they  dared  under  the  cir- 
cumstances ?  Had  we  machine  guns  at  every  street  corner 
ready  to  fire?  Others  in  the  same  breath,  both  militant 
and  inconsequent — of  course  I  never  spoke  to  the  brutes, 
but  naturally  I  laid  it  across  them  if  I  did  ...  it  was  to 
be  hoped  I  had  lost  no  opportunity  of  rubbing  in  their 
enormities.  Two  pictures  out  of  many  rose  before  my 
mind  as  I  listened  to  these  remarks 

A  hot  August  evening  in  Cologne.  A  large  crowd 
fills  the  Zoological  Gardens,  where  an  open-air  concert 
is  being  held.  Singers  from  Cologne  and  other  opera 
houses  have  given  us  selections  of  German,  French,  and 
Italian  music  in  a  spirit  entirely  catholic.     Equally  cath- 


22  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

olic  is  their  reception  by  the  large  and  appreciative  cos- 
mopoHtan  crowd.  In  front  of  the  open-air  stage,  Ger- 
mans, French,  Enghsh,  and  Americans  sit  side  by  side 
at  Httle  tables  drinking  beer  or  Rhine  wine.  The  music 
is  heard  in  complete  silence,  even  Thomas  Atkins  com- 
pelled thereto  by  the  genius  loci.  On  the  terrace  of  the 
neighbouring  restaurant  dinner  is  proceeding.  Numerous 
German  families,  the  girls  in  muslin  frocks  and  summer 
hats,  are  out  together  for  the  evening.  At  a  table  next 
to  ours  a  small  group  of  men,  unmistakably  soldiers,  are 
dining  together.  They  are  all  in  plain  clothes,  but  two 
of  them  wear  in  their  buttonholes  the  minute, 
scarcely  visible  black-and-white  ribbon  of  the  Iron 
Cross.  The  German  prima-donna  sings  the  well-known 
air  from  La  Boheme.  She  is  loudly  applauded  by  all 
present,  by  no  one  more  energetically  than  by  a  French 
officer  sitting  near  me.  As  darkness  comes  on,  illumina- 
tions add  their  gaiety  to  the  scene,  pink  and  white  lights 
shining  among  the  dark  leaves.  A  peaceful,  happy  gath- 
ering, with  laughter,  and  music,  and  beer — the  music  and 
the  beer  both  of  excellent  quality.  Forget  for  a  moment 
that  the  uniforms  are  khaki,  not  grey,  put  back  the  clock 
five  years,  and  who  would  suspect  the  tragic  bonds  of 
blood  and  strife  in  which  the  company  are  united?  Is  the 
war  a  dream  or  a  nightmare  ?  Is  Europe  white  with  the 
bones  of  the  millions  who  have  died;  is  Germany  itself 
staggering  on  the  edge  of  ruin  and  starvation?  If  so, 
how  can  this  musical  fete,  this  peaceful  bourgeois  gath- 
ering, be  possible;  the  enemies  of  yesterday  eating  and 
drinking  and  applauding  side  by  side  as  though  nothing 
had  happened?  What  does  it  all  mean?  What  is  one 
doing  there  oneself? 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION         23 

Again:  near  the  house  in  which  we  live  a  chronic  fair 
goes  on  every  afternoon.  Swing-boats,  roundabouts, 
shooting-galleries,  all  the  various  side-shows  of  an  English 
country  feast  are  here.  Drinks,  ice-cream,  and  refresh- 
ments are  no  less  to  the  fore.  Music,  that  monotonous 
braying  music  which  always  accompanies  a  merry-go- 
round,  goes  on  mechanically  for  many  hours.  Here 
Thomas  Atkins  gathers  in  force.  The  thrifty  Boche,  in 
fact,  has  created  the  whole  fair  for  his  entertainment  at 
a  modest  price.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  race  that  they 
not  only  accept  the  British  Occupation  with  entire  acqui- 
escence, but  endeavour  by  every  means  in  their  power  to 
turn  it  to  good  account.  Notices  in  English  explain  the 
nature  of  the  side-shows.  All  prices  are  marked  in  plain 
figures.  Reprehensible  though  it  may  be,  Gretchen  not 
infrequently  is  to  be  seen  on  the  roundabouts  and  in  the 
swing-boats  with  the  said  Thomas.  Picture-postcards, 
trinkets,  souvenirs,  are  all  for  sale.  The  shooting-galleries 
are  crowded  by  soldiers  still  anxious  to  let  off  their 
piece  in  a  more  harmless  fashion  than  on  the  scarred  bat- 
tle-line far  away  to  the  west.  The  Germans  are  out  to 
amuse,  the  English  to  be  amused.  Perfect  good  temper 
animates  both  buyers  and  sellers.  Introspection  is  hardly 
the  hall-mark  of  the  soldier  in  the  ranks,  and  the  English 
lads  who  lounge  about  from  booth  to  booth  never  give  a 
thought  to  the  amazing  situation  in  which  they  find  them- 
selves. Many  of  them  on  demobilisation  leave  Cologne 
with  real  regret.  It  is  a  clean,  decent  place,  with  more 
than  decent  beer.  After  all  Fritz  is  not  such  a  bad  fel- 
low. ...  In  the  long  and  varied  history  of  Britain's  rule 
overseas  has  the  Pax  Britannica  ever  held  sway  under 
conditions  so  strange  as  these  ?    As  darkness  falls  the  fair 


24^  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

is  lit  up  by  great  flares,  and  the  scene  grows  more  and 
more  animated.  Cologne,  with  large  resources  in  the 
shape  of  a  cheap  fuel  supply  in  its  immediate  neighbour- 
hood, is  well  off  both  as  regards  light  and  heat.  But  at 
last  all  is  silent.  Curfew  has  rung  for  the  Germans,  the 
Last  Post  for  the  English.  That  desperate  tune  repeated 
for  hours  by  the  merry-go-round  is  mercifully  at  an  end 
for  the  night.  To-morrow  it  will  all  begin  again,  and  so 
on  day  after  day 

What  are  we  to  make  of  the  civility  of  these  people 
among  whom  we  live  as  conquerors?  How  can  it  be 
reconciled  with  their  arrogance  and  brutality  when  they 
had  the  upper  hand  in  France  and  Belgium?  These 
middle-class  families,  these  quiet,  respectable  working- 
class  people  enjoying  their  simple  pleasures,  what  part 
did  they  take  in  the  insults  heaped  on  prisoners  and  cap- 
tives? Did  these  parents  and  children  rejoice  and  cheer 
when  submarines  sent  other  women  and  children  to  their 
deaths?  What  kind  of  conscience  do  they  carry  for  the 
war?  How  can  they  outwardly  at  least  bear  so  little 
grudge  against  the  people  who  have  beaten  them  ?  With 
whom  does  the  responsibility  for  the  war  rest?  During 
the  struggle  many  of  us  would  have  vowed  Burke  was 
at  fault  in  his  great  axiom  that  you  cannot  indict  a  nation. 
Germany  seemed  to  us  then  to  be  the  very  spirit  of  wick- 
edness incarnate.  Here  face  to  face  it  seems  more  diffi- 
cult. What  baffling  chameleon-like  quality  do  these  peo- 
ple possess,  that  they  can  outrage  the  conscience  of  the 
whole  world  and  yet  give  one  the  impression  that  as 
individuals  many  of  them  are  kindly,  decent  folk? 

The  riddle  seems  insoluble,  and  I  do  not  pretend  to 
have  any  key  to  it.     German  mentality  is  so  constituted 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION  25 

that  it  is  violent  and  arrogant  in  success,  chastened  and 
polite  in  defeat.  That  the  whole  nation  is  consciously 
playing  a  part  seems  hard  to  believe.  They  are  too  clumsy 
in  mind  and  body  for  so  continuous  an  effort  of  deception, 
too  thick  about  the  ankles  and  too  thick  about  the  wits. 
Some  of  the  English  in  Cologne  call  them  servile.  Per- 
sonally the  adjective  hardly  seems  to  me  to  meet  the  case. 
But  they  are  curiously  correct,  even  courteous.  I  v/ent 
about  Cologne,  on  arrival,  Baedeker  in  hand,  as  any 
pre-war  tourist  might  have  done.  Both  in  trams  and 
trains  I  received,  more  than  once,  small  civilities  from 
Germans  who  put  me  on  my  way  seeing  that  I  was  a 
stranger.  As  an  Englishwoman  I  marvelled  at  their 
civility.  It  was  the  same  in  the  shops.  The  family  in 
whose  house  we  were  billeted  on  my  first  arrival,  were,  I 
am  sure,  far  less  embarrassed  by  my  advent  than  I  was 
at  the  prospect  of  using  their  rooms.  I  was  haunted  by 
a  sense  of  the  rage  with  which  I  should  have  endured  the 
presence  of  a  German  woman  in  my  house.  But  after  a 
day  or  two  I  ceased  to  have  scruples  about  a  situation 
which  apparently  did  not  trouble  them.  It  was  a  relief  to 
accept  their  attitude  to  us,  as  it  might  be,  of  hosts  and 
paying  guests  to  whose  comfort  they  desired  to  con- 
tribute. Daily  we  exchanged  small  civilities.  Naturally 
we  were  careful  to  leave  no  ragged  edges  in  such  a  situa- 
tion. Often  I  speculated  on  the  transformation  scene 
which  might  have  resulted  from  a  change  in  our  respective 
positions.  The  old  housekeeper  had  the  hall-mark  of 
the  Prussian  on  her.  I  should  be  sorry  to  be  within  her 
reach  as  a  prisoner.  But  the  lady  of  the  house,  who 
had  lost  two  sons  in  the  war,  appeared  to  be  a  kindly 
soul.     She  was  a  good  musician,  and  I  furtively  and  un- 


26  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

successfully  ransacked  the  music  she  put  at  my  disposal 
to  find  a  copy  of  the  Hymn  of  Hate. 

A  pleasant  Fraulein  comes  to  talk  German  with  me 
daily,  and  from  her,  directly  and  indirectly,  I  have  learnt 
much  which  interests  me  about  the  German  attitude.  I 
was  fortunate  in  the  chance  which  threw  us  together,  for 
she  is  an  attractive,  broad-minded  girl,  singularly  free 
from  prejudice  and  bitterness.  During  an  acquaintance 
extending  over  many  months  we  have  learnt  to  know  and 
like  each  other,  and  have  long  since  forgotten  we  are 
technically  enemies.  My  Fraulein  has  lived  both  in  Eng- 
land and  France  and  has  friends  in  both  countries.  Her 
lover  and  her  brother  were  killed  in  the  war.  Another 
brother  survives,  more  dead  than  alive.  The  hunger  pinch 
was  severe  in  the  Rhineland,  which  was  always  better  off 
than  other  parts  of  Germany.  Of  air  raids  she  spoke 
with  unmistakable  horror.  Bombs  had  fallen  in  her  near 
neighbourhood  on  one  occasion,  so  she  told  me ;  it  was  a 
case  of  spending  every  night  in  the  cellar.  All  this  came 
as  a  surprise  to  me,  because  not  a  brick  seems  out  of 
place  in  Cologne.  Still  more  was  I  interested  by  her 
denunciations  of  evils  which  sounded  strangely  familiar. 
Profiteering,  it  was  scandalous  what  had  gone  on!  All 
the  horrible  people  who  had  made  money  out  of  the  war 
and  the  sufferings  of  the  nation.  The  new  rich  were  a 
disgrace.  The  Government  had  been  very  slack  in  dealing 
with  them.  And  then  the  skulkers,  the  shameful  young 
men  who  went  to  earth  in  reserved  occupations  and  offices 
and  did  not  go  to  fight.  Food  ?  They  had  starved  in  the 
towns,  so  ineffective  was  the  system  of  distribution.  The 
country  people  who  grew  the  food  took  care  not  to  part 
with   it.      The    new    Government?      She   shrugged   her 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION  2T 

shoulders  in  despair.  Since  the  Revolution  things  had 
gone  from  bad  to  worse.  Every  one  was  discontented, 
especially  all  the  work-people,  who  spend  their  time  de- 
manding higher  wages  and  shorter  hours.  And  servants, 
there  were  none  left.  No  girls  would  go  out  to  work; 
they  had  all  been  spoilt  by  high  wages  in  munition  works. 

As  I  listened  I  rubbed  my  eyes,  and  wondered  if  I 
were  sitting  in  London  or  Cologne.  How  often  at  home 
had  one  listened  to  complaints  of  this  very  type  about  the 
shortcomings  of  the  working-classes,  always  pointed  by 
the  remark  that,  however  wicked,  the  efficient  Hun  Gov- 
ernment managed  these  things  much  better  in  Germany. 
And  yet  apparently  every  complaint  with  which  we  were 
familiar  in  England  was  also  in  full  blast  here.  Always 
with  one  great  difference,  to  which  I  must  refer  again  in 
another  chapter:  the  Germans  for  years  w^ere  hungry, 
and  they  fought  the  war  with  starvation  slowly  eating  out 
their  hearts. 

A  remark  current  in  England,  and  sometimes  heard 
even  on  the  Rhine,  is  to  the  effect  that  the  Germans  do 
not  know  they  are  beaten.  Do  not  know  they  are  beaten  ? 
Should  we  know  we  were  beaten  if  great  districts  of  our 
country  were  occupied  by  enemy  armies ;  if  we  had  German 
officers  and  their  wives  and  families  quartered  in  our 
houses;  if  our  officials  had  to  take  their  orders  from  occu- 
pying Prussians;  if  all  our  barracks  and  public  buildings 
and  places  of  amusement  were  taken  over ;  if  the  opera  and 
theatre  had  to  conform  to  German  rules;  if  the  tennis 
courts,  the  golf  club,  the  polo  ground,  the  racecourse 
were  all  monopolised  by  Germans,  and  we  obtained  by 
an  act  of  grace  on  the  part  of  our  conquerors  such  priv- 
ileges as  they  might  think  well  to  bestow  on  us?    If  that 


28  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

were  our  fate,  should  we  labour  under  much  doubt  as  to 
the  hard  facts  of  the  situation? 

Superficially  it  is  true  that  life  seems  to  flow  in  very 
normal  channels  in  Cologne.  But,  in  fact,  the  country  is 
beaten  flat  and  cannot  at  the  moment  stand  alone.  How- 
ever bitter  the  cup  of  humiliation,  better  the  presence  of 
of  a  conqueror  who  has  kept  order,  provided  food,  ad- 
ministered even-handed  justice,  and  dealt  fairly  between 
man  and  man,  than  the  horrors  of  hunger  and  revolution. 
As  for  the  French,  it  cannot  be  expected  that  France  with 
the  memories  of  1870  and  191 4  burnt  deep  into  her  very 
marrow,  France  dragged  twice  through  the  fire,  can  ap- 
proach the  tasks  of  occupation  in  the  same  spirit  as  the 
more  detached  Britons  who  have  less  to  forget.  Set  an 
Englishman  to  administer  the  country  of  his  worst  enemy, 
and  that  country  at  once  becomes  an  administrative  prob- 
lem, to  be  run  on  the  best  possible  lines.  The  Watch  on 
the  Rhine  yet  again  has  proved  the  half -unconscious 
genius  of  our  race  for  government,  which  is  at  one  and 
the  same  time  just,  firm,  and  sensible. 

We  have  been  very  fortunate  in  our  military  admin- 
istration. Those  in  command  are  able,  far-sighted  men, 
who  have  known  how  to  take  a  broad  view  and  a  long 
view  of  Germany's  present  position.  The  blood-thirsty 
old  women  of  both  sexes  whose  one  object  in  life  is  to 
perpetuate  the  hatreds  and  violences  of  the  war  are  civilian 
products.  The  fighting  soldiers  are  at  one  and  the  same 
time  more  generous,  and  in  the  true  sense  more  pacific. 
They  realise  the  chasm  on  the  brink  of  which  Germany 
stands  shivering.  They  also  realise  the  truth,  still  but 
dimly  grasped  in  England,  that  a  general  collapse  on  the 
part  of  Germany  will  be  disastrous,  not  only  for  her,  but 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION  29 

for  the  rqst  of  the  world.  No  one  will  benefit  by  a  spread 
of  anarchy  through  Central  Europe,  least  of  all  ourselves. 
The  men  who  have  smashed  the  German  war  machine 
have  taken  the  measure  of  their  foe.  No  nonsense  of 
any  kind  would  be  tolerated.  When  an  order  is  given 
it  has  to  be  obeyed.  They  are  equally  devoid  of  senti- 
mentality and  false  illusions.  But  they  realise  the  ap- 
palling task  with  which  the  new  German  Government  is 
struggling,  and  the  importance  of  a  successful  outcome 
to  that  struggle.  And  it  is  their  aim  to  make  it  possible 
for  the  country  to  stagger  to  its  feet  again,  to  put  an  end 
to  starvation,  to  set  industry  going,  to  preserve  law  and 
order.  Also  they  will  admit  frankly  they  have  found 
many  of  the  Germans  with  whom  they  have  had  to  deal 
capable  and  amenable. 

The  German  civilian  officials  and  the  police  work  under 
the  military  authorities,  and  have  worked  without  diffi- 
culty or  friction.  The  Occupation  has  a  fine  and  honour- 
able record.  The  behaviour  of  the  troops  has  been  good. 
Soldiers  have  won  real  popularity  in  the  country  districts. 
Incidents  and  brawls  will  of  course  occur  from  time  to 
time  among  large  bodies  of  men,  but  they  have  had  no 
racial  or  political  significance.  The  forces  on  the  Rhine 
are  at  present  one  of  the  great  factors  making  for  peace 
and  order  in  Europe.  Not  for  the  purposes  of  military 
adventure  or  conquest,  but  as  a  constructive  administra- 
tive machine,  the  present  British  regime  in  the  Occupied 
Area  is  an  admirable  instrument. 

To  an  island  race  like  ourselves,  dwelling  in  a  land 
long  inviolate,  there  is  something  peculiarly  humiliating 
in  the  thought  of  an  enemy  occupation.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  German,  in  this  as  in  many  other 


30  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

respects,  is  made  of  tougher  stuff.  Invasion  is  to  him 
an  old  and  famiHar  story.  The  Rhineland  in  particular 
has  been  overrun  time  after  time.  Neither  is  it  any  nov- 
elty for  the  French  to  find  themselves  again  in  provinces 
on  which  in  the  past  French  armies  have  left  their  mark 
repeatedly.  It  is  an  old  story,  this  quarrel  between 
France  and  Germany,  and  to  date  it  from  1870  is  to  err  in 
historical  perspective. 

Yet  disciplined  and  submissive  though  the  German  is 
to  the  harsh  verdicts  of  war — never  harsher  than  v/hen 
applied  by  himself — there  must  be  some  peculiar  sting 
in  the  presence  of  the  enemy  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine. 
For  every  national  sentiment  the  nation  possesses  centres 
round  the  river  famed  in  song  and  story.  German  patri- 
otic literature  of  the  "Wacht  am  Rhein"  type  is  mediocre 
in  quality,  but  it  is  eloquent  of  the  spirit  of  the  people. 
Even  Heine,  cynic  and  often  anti-patriot,  sings  proudly 
of  "der  heilige  Strom."  In  periods  of  defeat  and  op- 
pression Germans  of  an  older  date  have  found  in  the 
cleansing  waters  of  the  _great  stream  a  symbol  of  hope 
and  regeneration.  Few  foreigners  even  can  resist  the 
spell  of  the  Rhine.  Mighty  rivers  have  a  message  to 
give  to  the  restless  heart  of  man  as  their  waters  sweep  by, 
eternal  yet  ever  changing.  Cradled  in  mountain  snows 
virginal  and  remote,  destined  in  the  end  to  know  the 
final  purification  and  joyousness  of  the  ocean,  the  course 
of  any  famous  river  as  it  flows  from  mountain  to  plain, 
from  village  to  town,  becomes  an  image  of  the  flight  of 
time  and  the  vicissitudes  of  human  life. 

The  romantic  stretches  of  the  Rhine  lie  south  of  Bonn. 
Here  are  castles  and  vineyards,  and  scenes  of  many  a 
legendary  exploit.    At  Bonn  the  long  gorge  beginning  at 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION         31 

Bingen  comes  to  an  end,  and  the  Rhine  enters  the  broad 
plain  in  which  Cologne  is  situated.  Often  sullied  and  de- 
filed by  the  factories  on  its  banks,  nothing  can  destroy 
the  sense  of  grandeur  as  the  great  volume  of  water  sweeps 
forward  to  its  fate.  A  hard  lot  for  such  a  river  to  be 
caught  in  the  end  by  the  mud  shallows  and  flats  of  Hol- 
land, and  to  make  its  final  way  to  the  sea  broken  up  into 
countless  minor  streams ! 

At  Cologne  the  Rhine  is  still  untroubled  by  any  sense 
of  the  doom  which  awaits  it.    The  river  takes  a  wide  bend 
as  it  approaches  the  town,  a  lucky  chance  which  is  ad- 
mirable from  the  aesthetic  point  of  view.     The  traffic 
is  very  considerable.     Huge  barges  bearing  coal,  iron, 
and  all  manner  of  merchandise  are  dragged  up  stream 
by  powerful  tugs.    At  night  the  view  from  the  banks  is 
mysterious  and  beautiful.   A  great  net  of  twinkling  lights 
cast  over  town  and  quays  is  reflected  a  hundredfold  in 
the  dark  waters.    Lights  from  the  barges,  anchored  along- 
side the  banks  after  the  day's  work,  twinkle  back  in  reply 
to  the  messages  from  the  shore.    Everything  seems  astir, 
as  though  town  and  river  were  moved  by  some  dim  half- 
earthly  emotion.     When  morning  comes  it  will  reveal 
that  many  of  these  fairy  lights  only  mark  the  presence 
of  factories  and  workshops.     But  night  with  her  indigo 
mantle  has  given  another  and  more  mysterious  turn  to 
the  scene.    The  massive  Hohenzollern  bridge  which  spans 
the  river  exactly  opposite  the  Dom  is  a  typical  expression 
of    the    spirit   of    modern    Germany — strong,  powerful, 
practical.     It  is  a  fine  bridge,  and  I  have  so  much  to 
say  in  criticism  of  German  taste  that  I  am  glad  for  once 
in  a  way  to  note  the  entire  success  with  which  they  have 
handled  an  architectural  problem  concerned  with  the  car- 


32  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

rying,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  of  railway  lines,  trams, 
and  passenger  traffic.  Especially  fine  is  the  bridge  at 
night,  when  it  hangs  like  a  chain  of  light  across  the  river ; 
trams  and  trains  passing  like  swift-moving  constella- 
tions among  the  firmament  of  the  illuminated  spans  and 
pillars.  The  awkward  mass  of  the  Dom  lies  in  close 
proximity  to  the  bridge,  but  they  do  not  interfere  with 
one  another. 

The  bronze  equestrian  figures  of  the  four  Hohenzollern 
kings  which  guard  the  two  ends  of  the  bridge  are  among 
the  few  satisfactory  examples  of  modern  monuments 
which  I  have  seen  in  Germany.  Generally  speaking,  the 
country  is  bespattered  with  statues  of  the  Hohenzollerns, 
the  artistic  merit  of  which  is  nil.  Never  did  a  reigning 
house  impose  itself  so  mercilessly,  in  bronze,  stone,  and 
iron,  on  a  docile  people.  Cologne,  needless  to  say,  has  an 
ample  share  of  imperial  statues.  The  Emperor  William  i. 
had  a  head  which  in  particular  did  not  lend  itself  to  plas- 
tic treatment;  his  whiskers,  which  jump  at  one  from 
innumerable  squares,  have  a  tendency  to  rouse  my  worst 
passions.  There  is  little  humorous  in  the  state  of  Ger- 
many to-day,  but  the  onlooker  can  extract  some  minor 
entertainment  from  the  squabbles  which  rage  in  official 
and  unofficial  German  circles  as  to  the  fate  of  the  Hohen- 
zollern statues.  The  Socialists,  in  fiery  language,  com- 
plain that  the  mind  of  young  Germany  is  being  corrupted 
by  these  flaunting  images  of  an  oppressive  autocracy,  and 
demand  that  the  statues  be  consigned  to  the  decent  ob- 
scurity of  the  cellars  of  the  local  museum.  The 
bourgeoisie  are  equally  loud  in  the  demand  that  the 
statues  should  be  treated  as  historical  relics  and  left  where 
they  are.    The  topic  bids  fair  to  become  the  hardy  annual 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION         33 

of  Socialist  perorations.  Meanwhile  there  is  other  work 
to  be  done  and  the  Hohenzollerns  remain. 

Life  in  Cologne  is  very  pleasant  for  the  occupying 
army.  As  with  the  Hohenzollern  bridge,  so  with  the 
town  itself — it  is  typical  of  the  material  excellence  which 
before  the  war  marked  the  German  organisation  of  prac- 
tical life.  German  local  authorities  throughout  the  coun- 
try have  kept  a  firm  and  admirable  grasp  on  the  town- 
planning  of  their  large  modern  cities.  The  individualism 
of  the  speculative  builder  is  not  allowed  to  run  riot  here. 
Not  only  are  the  new  quarters  in  Cologne  well  and  solidly 
built,  but  open  spaces  abound.  Fortifications  can  have 
their  sanitary  uses,  for  near  the  antiquated  forts  in  the 
suburbs  stretches  a  broad  belt  of  open  country  devoted 
to  allotments  and  market  gardens.  There  are  no  signs 
of  the  jerry-builder  running  up  shoddy  houses  to  the 
detriment  of  future  generations.  Except  in  the  old  quar- 
ters of  the  town  along  the  Rhine  there  are  no  obvious 
slums.  Yet  Germany,  like  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  is 
feeling  the  shortage  of  houses  which  has  been  an  eco- 
nomic consequence  of  the  war,  and  complaints  of  over- 
crowding are  common. 

But  the  real  interest  of  Cologne  lies  elsewhere  than 
in  the  prosperous  latter-day  development  of  the  town. 
The  wide  streets  and  boulevards  encircle  the  kernel  of  a 
famous  mediaeval  city.  And  mediaeval  Cologne  goes 
back  to  a  still  older  foundation.  The  modern  buildings 
and  opulent  dwelling-houses  of  the  Ring  smother,  but 
cannot  wholly  obliterate,  the  memories  of  the  Empress 
Agrippina  and  the  settlement,  called  after  her,  Colonia 
Agrippina — subsequently  Colonia — Koln. 

My   friend,   Mr.   John  Buchan,  always   declares   that 


34  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

countries  which  have  been  romanised  stand  in  a  wholly 
different  category  from  savage  lands,  such  as  Prussia, 
which  have  never  known  that  great  civilising  influence. 
The  Rhineland,  with  its  more  liberal  culture  and  gentler 
manners  than  Germany  east  of  the  Elbe,  is  a  good  illustra- 
tion of  this  theory.  Rome  has  been  here,  and  where 
Rome  has  passed  some  element  of  quality  abides.  Famous 
among  the  Roman  settlements,  Cologne  played  a  part  no 
less  important  in  mediaeval  history.  A  leading  member 
of  the  Hanseatic  League,  the  relations  between  Cologne 
and  London  in  the  fifteenth  century  were  close.  If  we 
rule  Cologne  to-day,  Cologne  at  an  earlier  date  has  dic- 
tated to  us.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  in.  foreign  trade  in 
the  city  of  London  was  largely  conducted  through  the 
corporation  of  Cologne  merchants  established  in  the  Steel- 
yard. The  internal  life  of  Cologne  was  torn  in  mediaeval 
times  by  fierce  dissensions.  Nevertheless,  mediaeval  Ger- 
man art  owed  much  of  its  development  in  painting  and 
architecture  to  the  artists  and  master  builders  of  the  lower- 
Rhine. 

After  the  sixteenth  century  Cologne,  like  other  cities 
of  the  Hanseatic  League,  lost  much  of  its  importance,  and 
the  place  fell  to  a  low  ebb  for  more  than  two  centuries. 
Its  rise  into  new  prosperity  during  the  nineteenth  century 
registers  various  phases  in  the  great  national  revival  which 
took  place  throughout  Germany,  and  also  the  considerable 
social  improvements  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  followed 
on  Prussian  rule. 

The  traces  of  mediaeval  Cologne  are  sadly  obliterated. 
Of  the  Roman  period  practically  nothing  remains.  The 
Germans  are  desperate  people  in  all  matters  concerning 
the  upkeep  and  restoration  of  ancient  buildings.     They 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION         35 

are  terribly  painstaking  and  have  the  best  intentions,  un- 
happily with  dire  results.  No  words  in  Baedeker  lay  so 
cold  a  hand  on  my  heart  as  the  frequent  phrase,  "the 
church  has  in  recent  times  undergone  a  thorough  restora- 
tion." Thorough  in  their  vandalism  such  efforts  are. 
Meagrely  endowed  with  artistic  taste,  no  nation  in  the 
world  lays  hands  so  heavy  and  so  obliterating  on  the 
monuments  of  the  past.  The  one  idea  apparently  is  to 
make  everything  clean  and  tidy.  To  this  end  interiors  of 
ancient  Romanesque  churches  are  covered  with  a  pitiless 
layer  of  reinforced  concrete  on  which  lines  are  scratched 
to  represent  stones.  German  taste  further  revels  in  mod- 
ern mosaics  of  a  gross  and  gaudy  character  sprawling 
over  wall  and  vault.  Church  after  church  in  the  Rhine- 
land  have  I  seen  ruined  in  such  fashion.  In  Cologne 
the  noble  proportions  of  ancient  Romanesque  buildings, 
such  as  the  Apostelkirche,  the  Gereonskirche,  Santa  Maria 
im  Capitol,  stagger  under  the  weight  of  the  artistic  atroc- 
ities they  are  forced  to  carry. 

The  ex-Emperor  was  one  of  the  worst  offenders  in 
these  matters.  His  vain  and  restless  spirit  exacted  in- 
cense as  connoisseur  and  art  critic  no  less  than  as  war 
lord.  An  entourage  of  docile  snobs  hastened  to  encour- 
age him  in  this  view,  and  he  was  allowed  to  destroy 
at  will  the  beauty  of  various  churches  which,  thanks  to 
his  fiat,  have  lost  all  their  essential  quality.  The  Alten- 
berger  Dom  in  the  Bergische  Land,  a  model  in  miniature 
of  Cologne  Cathedral  and  an  exquisite  example  of  early 
Gothic,  was  immolated  in  this  way  thanks  to  a  visit  from 
the  Emperor.  He  declared  that  the  church  must  be  re- 
stored, as  it  did  not  look  clean.  To-day  the  interior  pre- 
sents the  appearance  of  a  bathroom. 


36  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

This  being  the  typical  German  spirit  in  matters  artistic, 
it  is  hardly  surprising  that  many  precious  relics  of  the  past 
have  gone  under  in  Cologne,  The  fine  old  Rathhaus  still 
remains,  but  the  mediaeval  town  walls  have  inevitably 
succumbed  to  the  needs  of  modern  traffic  and  expansion. 
At  several  points  the  old  gates  have  been  left  standing, 
forlorn-looking  objects  marooned  among  the  substantial 
buildings  of  the  last  twenty  years.  Broad  though  the 
highway  of  the  Ring,  beyond  which  modern  Cologne 
spreads  outwards,  the  principal  streets  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  Dom  Platz  are  unusually  narrow.  The 
mediaeval  houses  have  vanished;  the  cramped  space  of 
the  mediaeval  street  remains. 

The  Hohe  Strasse,  the  principal  thoroughfare,  is 
crowded  with  people  throughout  the  day.  In  the  evening 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  elbow  your  way  through  the 
dense  mass  of  sightseers.  A  pedestrian  must  make  up  his 
mind  to  float  along  with  the  great  stream  of  traffic  and 
reach  his  destination  w^hen  borne  there  on  the  current. 
Here  are  the  principal  shops,  and  shopping  and  bargains 
have  played  a  considerable  part  in  the  life  of  the  Army  of 
Occupation.  Bargains  were  certainly  to  be  had  in  the 
early  days  before  old  stocks  were  exhausted,  but  their 
elusive  delights  have  long  since  vanished  from  the  scene. 
Prices  have  soared  as  the  mark  fell  in  value,  and  did  not 
fall  in  turn  when  the  mark  improved.  They  stand  to-day 
at  a  high  level  even  for  the  English,  who  benefit  by  the 
exchange.  How  the  German  population  can  afford  to  buy 
anything  at  figures  so  exaggerated  in  marks  is  a  mystery. 

The  fluctuation  of  the  exchange  is  another  matter  in 
which  the  Army  of  Occupation  takes  a  deep  interest.  We 
inquire  wuth  real  concern  daily  as  to  the  health  of  the 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION         37 

mark,  the  caprices  of  which  baffle  most  forecasts.  These 
constant  fluctuations  in  the  value  of  money  are  very  de- 
moralising for  every  one  concerned.  Naturally  such  a 
situation  is  a  premium  on  speculation,  and  for  the  German 
merchant  and  shopkeeper  the  lack  of  stability  has  dis- 
astrous consequences. 

The  real  necessities  of  Germany  to-day  lie  below  the 
surface,  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  associate  at  first  sight 
any  ideas  of  poverty  or  disaster  with  the  crowds  of  well- 
dressed  people  in  the  streets.  The  overflowing  popula- 
tion of  the  big  German  towns  is  very  striking.  It  is 
hard  to  believe  they  have  had  any  real  losses  in  the  war. 
Men,  women,  and  children;  children,  women,  and  men: 
it  is  always  the  same  story.  The  Germans  are  a  very 
plain  race;  few  of  them  have  any  pretensions  to  good 
looks.  But,  men  and  women  alike,  they  are  tall  and 
powerfully  built,  and  convey  an  outstanding  impression  of 
physical  strength  and  vigour. 

And  what  have  they  done  with  their  wounded?  That 
is  a  perpetual  puzzle  to  the  English.  It  is  a  matter  of  very 
rare  exception  to  see  a  lamed,  or  maimed,  or  blinded  man. 
One  poor  wreck  without  arms  or  legs  who  frequented  the 
Hohe  Strasse  in  a  little  trolley  was  a  familiar  figure.  But 
the  injured  lads  who  have  become  too  sad  a  feature  of  our 
town  and  village  life  seem  to  be  non-existent  here.  Yet 
the  heavy  German  casualties  must  have  left  their  mark  on 
the  people.  Why,  therefore,  are  there  so  few  signs  of 
wounded  men?  I  have  heard  it  said  that  with  the  re- 
moval of  the  German  military  hospitals  following  on  the 
Occupation,  other  arrangements  had  to  be  made  for  the 
disabled,  and  that  many  left  the  district.  Whether  this 
is  true  or  not  I  cannot  say.     Germans  are  proverbially 


38  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

skilful  at  tucking  out  of  sight  all  signs  of  their  drunken 
and  disreputable  classes.  Something  of  the  same  kind 
has  happened  apparently  with  the  wounded.  When  one 
comes  to  the  children,  the  toll  of  the  war  becomes  ap- 
parent in  a  very  different  way.  As  regards  adults,  the 
superficial  impression  received  is  that  neither  physique 
nor  population  has  suffered.  I  should  add  that  all  super- 
ficial impressions  of  German  life  to-day  require  to  be 
discounted  heavily.  All  the  evidence  goes  to  prove  that 
the  very  real  suffering  in  the  country  lies  beneath  the 
surface,  and  that  the  rich  people  and  the  profiteers  who 
crowd  shops  and  cafes  give  no  true  measure  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  masses. 

Overwhelmingly  military  though  the  aspect  of  Cologne 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Allied  victory,  the  civilian  char- 
acter of  the  town  has  re-emerged,  as  during  the  course  of 
months  the  great  Army  of  the  original  Occupation  has 
shrunk  to  a  moderate  garrison.  To-day  the  impression  is 
merely  that  of  an  English  reserve  in  a  foreign  land.  The 
garrison  conducts  itself,  officers  and  ranks  alike,  after  the 
ordinary  fashion  of  garrisons  all  the  world  over.  Work 
is  done  and  done  thoroughly;  for  the  rest  there  are  the 
normal  amusements,  dancing,  sports,  and  games. 

The  Deutsches  Theater,  which  is  in  English  hands, 
has  made  a  spirited  and  successful  attempt  to  bring  first- 
rate  English  drama  within  reach  of  the  Occupying  Army. 
But  the  greatest  factor  in  recreation  undoubtedly  has  been 
the  Opera.  The  opportunity  of  hearing  night  after  night 
the  best  music  of  all  schools,  classical  and  modern,  is  one 
for  which  we  have  had  much  cause  to  be  thankful.  The 
repertoire  is  not  only  large,  but  wholly  catholic  in  spirit. 
No  foolish  demand  exists  to  place  French  and  Italian 


COLOGNE  AxND  THE  OCCUPATION         39 

music  under  a  ban :  the  Germans  have  the  good  sense  to 
recognise  that  genius  transcends  all  boundaries  of  race. 
The  great  classical  masterpieces  of  Beethoven,  Mozart, 
Gluck  can  be  heard  as  v^ell  as  those  of  Wagner,  Strauss, 
and  the  lighter  works  of  Puccini,  Bizet,  Massenet,  Mas- 
cagni,  Offenbach,  Gounod.  The  performances  of  the 
Ring  are  particularly  fine;  and  the  passion  of  the  Kapell- 
meister, Herr  Klemperer,  for  Mozart  makes  the  produc- 
tion of  these  exquisite  operas  specially  interesting.  If  the 
Germans  have  not  eyes  to  see,  no  nation  in  the  world  have 
ears  so  fine  to  hear.  In  matters  musical  they  are  doubly 
and  trebly  gifted — the  whole  artistic  expression  of  the  race 
appears  to  have  found  an  outlet  in  this  direction.  The 
Cologne  Opera  House  lives  up  to  the  best  pre-war  stand- 
ards. There  are  no  stars,  but,  what  is  infinitely  preferable, 
a  high  level  of  ensemble  and  a  unity  of  artistic  expression 
between  the  singers  and  the  instrumentalists  which  can 
never  exist  in  scratch  companies  held  together  by  celeb- 
rities. The  scenery  and  staging  are  excellent  and  show 
real  artistic  merit  of  a  kind  unusual  in  Germany.  The 
orchestra  too  is  first-rate — a  fine  and  flexible  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  its  conductor. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  English  have  to  no  small 
extent  imported  the  bad  English  habit  of  talking  during 
orchestral  passages.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Occupation 
not  a  sound  was  ever  heard  in  the  body  of  the  house.  As 
time  went  on  a  familiar  and  unpleasant  murmur  became 
from  time  to  time  more  noticeable.  Explanations  as  to 
the  involved  relationships  of  the  Wagner  heroes  and 
heroines  when  sought  and  given  in  the  course  of  a  per- 
formance are  peculiarly  exasperating  to  other  people  in 
the  near  vicinity  of  the  earnest  inquirer.     It  is  a  curious 


40  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

sight  during  the  intervals  to  see  the  German  audience 
in  couples  promenading  solemnly  round  the  large  "foyer" 
while  the  English  and  French  look  on.  But  even  casual 
meeting-places  between  the  two  races  are  rare.  Life  in 
Cologne  flows  in  two  distinct  channels,  between  which 
there  is  no  communication  of  any  kind.  For  the  large 
majority  of  the  English,  Germans  have  no  existence — 
what's  Hecuba  to  them  or  they  to  Hecuba?  There  is 
nothing  aggressive  about  the  British  Occupation.  The 
Army  goes  about  its  business,  acts  justly,  and  avoids  un- 
necessary pinpricks  and  irritations.  The  bitterness  of  the 
war  has  left  a  considerable  aftermath  which  colours  con- 
versation, but  the  inherent  British  sense  of  decency  and 
fair  play  rules  the  situation  in  practice.  It  would  offend 
that  sense  of  fair  play  to  keep  kicking  a  man,  however 
much  disliked,  when  he  was  down  and  out. 

The  Germans  on  their  side  have  learnt  fully  to  appre- 
ciate the  merits  of  the  British  rule.  Well-to-do  people 
have  a  lively  sense  of  the  protection  and  security  afforded 
by  the  Occupying  Army.  The  German  bourgeoisie  live 
in  terror  of  the  new  might  of  the  working-classes. 
Though  the  first  impression  on  arrival  may  be  one  of 
comfort  and  prosperity,  there  is  in  fact  but  a  very  thin 
veneer  of  order  covering  anarchy  below.  Germans  speak 
with  dismay  of  the  appalling  increase  in  crime  and  theft 
since  the  war.  Hunger  is  responsible  for  much  of  the 
petty  pilfering  which  goes  on,  but  it  is  clear  that  all 
manner  of  violent  elements  hide  their  heads  out  of  fear 
and  fear  alone.  The  German  police  are  responsible  for 
the  normal  daily  life  of  the  town  and  area,  but  Thomas 
Atkins,  good-natured  and  indifferent,  is  the  power  be- 
hind the  throne,  and  it  is  thanks  to  his  presence  that  the 


COLOGNE  AND  THE  OCCUPATION  41 

German  writ  runs  and  is  obeyed  among  the  Rhinelanders. 
At  the  same  time  I  am  sceptical  as  to  the  spread  of 
Bolshevist  ideas  on  any  large  scale  among  the  German 
nation  outside  certain  industrial  circles.  The  genius  of 
the  race  is  essentially  law-abiding  and  orderly.  If  it  is 
allowed  to  eat  and  to  work,  and  is  not  kept  artificially 
in  a  state  of  hunger  and  unemployment,  the  country  will, 
I  believe,  in  time  settle  down.  Bolshevism  is  a  disease 
drawing  its  strength  from  hunger  and  despair.  It  is  only 
dangerous  when  such  conditions  exist  or  are  provoked  by 
a  short-sighted  policy  of  fear  and  reprisals.  "Oh,  I 
should  like  to  see  Germany  go  Bolshevist  for  a  time  and 
all  the  people  killing  one  another,"  was  the  genial  remark 
I  overheard  once  in  England,  the  speaker  being  an  English 
civilian.  I  do  not  think  this  wish  will  be  gratified,  but 
what  the  speaker  and  his  kind  forget  is  that  Bolshevism 
is  a  disease  which  can  be  treated  by  no  cordon  sanitaire, 
and  that  the  spread  of  ruin  and  confusion  in  Central 
Europe  means  that  the  same  evil  spectres  will  knock  as- 
suredly at  our  own  doors.  The  fatal  habit  of  "thinking 
war"  still  dominates  whole  classes  of  people  throughout 
the  Allied  countries.  But  the  business  of  the  hour  is 
peace,  and  to  be  a  laggard  about  peace  to-day  is  as  crim- 
inal as  to  have  been  a  laggard  about  war  when  Europe 
and  civilisation  stood  menaced. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  KOLNER  DOM 

In  the  Wallraf-Richartz  Museum,  where,  after  the  man- 
ner of  German  collections,  pictures  and  antiques,  both 
good  and  bad,  jostle  each  other  with  small  regard  to  qual- 
ity, a  series  of  modern  frescoes  execrable  in  colour  and 
design  decorate  the  main  staircase.  The  artist  has  been 
at  pains  to  cover  the  walls  with  various  incidents,  alle- 
gorical and  otherwise,  in  the  long  history  of  Cologne. 
The  final  fresco  is  the  most  entertaining  of  the  series.  It 
represents  the  scene  in  1842  when  Frederick  William  iv. 
visited  Cologne  on  a  memorable  occasion.  In  this  year 
work  was  resumed  on  the  ruined  and  neglected  shell  of 
the  cathedral,  and  the  citizens  of  Cologne  dedicated  them- 
selves anew  to  the  task  of  making  a  success  of  the  failure 
of  centuries.  The  King  attended  in  person  to  inaugurate 
the  great  effort.  Frederick  William  had  many  of  the 
showy  and  histrionic  qualities  for  which  his  great-nephew 
was  conspicuous,  and  like  William  11.  was  by  way  of 
having  a  great  deal  of  taste  in  artistic  matters — most  of 
it  bad.  Blessed  with  the  gift  of  fluent  speech,  he  adored 
ceremonial  occasions,  especially  those  on  which  he  could 
pose  before  Europe  as  a  patron  of  the  Muses. 

In  the  Wallrof-Richartz  Museum  fresco  the  founda- 
tion stone  of  the  new  building  has  been  well  and  truly 
laid.  Brawny  workmen  in  the  foreground  haul  about 
imposing  blocks  of  stone  and  deal  purposefully  with  a 

42 


THE  KOLNER  DOM  43 

huge  floral  decoration.  Frederick  William,  on  a  platform 
raised  above  the  assembled  company,  is  looking  heaven- 
wards with  rapt  expression,  as  though  following  through 
the  clouds  the  flight  of  some  fiery  chariot.  Particularly 
impressive  is  a  row  of  city  fathers  in  full  evening  dress, 
wearing  decorations,  who  with  hands  tightly  clasped 
across  their  stomachs  stand  meek  and  simpering  in  the 
royal  presence. 

This  ludicrous  painting  is  an  unworthy  memorial  of 
what  was  in  fact  a  high  and  spirited  adventure.  The 
completion  of  the  Dom  after  centuries  of  failure  and 
decay  was  a  great  task,  finely  conceived  and  finely  carried 
through.  The  wave  of  national  feeling  and  national  self- 
consciousness,  which  developed  and  spread  through  Ger- 
many from  the  middle  of  the  last  century  onwards, 
found  a  practical  symbol  to  which  it  could  rally  in  this 
work  of  reconstruction.  As  year  by  year  columns  and 
towers  rose  higher  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  the 
great  neglected  fane  began  to  assume  the  lines  dreamt  of 
centuries  before  by  its  long-dead  architect,  the  German 
saw  in  this  miracle  an  image  of  the  resurrection  of  his 
own  country.  Germany  had  been  a  ruin,  destroyed  and 
at  the  feet  of  a  conqueror.  Germany  too  had  triumphed 
over  destruction  and  failure.  Through  her  new-found 
unity  she  was  rising,  like  the  walls  of  the  cathedral,  to 
a  position  of  power  and  authority  undreamt  of  before. 
Little  wonder  that  the  rejoicings  held  in  honour  of  the 
final  completion  of  the  work  in  1880,  a  date  following 
closely  on  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  assumed  a  national 
character  and  were  invested  with  considerable  pomp  and 
circumstance. 

No  cathedral  in  the  world  has  had  so  strange  and 


44  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

chequered  a  history  as  that  of  Cologne.  The  hearts  of 
many  master  builders  were  broken  over  it.  The  mediaeval 
difficulties  of  construction  were  enormous.  The  building 
even  of  the  beautiful  thirteenth-century  choir  suffered 
severely  from  the  fierce  civic  and  ecclesiastical  feuds 
which  raged  at  that  time  between  the  town  and  the  arch- 
bishops. Many  legends  are  connected  with  the  name  of 
Meister  Gerhard,  the  architect  whose  main  ideas  are  em- 
bodied in  the  Dom  as  it  stands  to-day.  Germany  is  under 
debt  to  France  for  the  greatest  of  her  Gothic  churches. 
To  Amiens,  where  Gerhard  lived  and  studied,  Cologne 
Cathedral  owes  its  inspiration.  The  thirteenth-century 
choir,  an  architectural  gem  of  the  first  order,  follows 
closely  the  lines  of  Amiens  Cathedral.  Few  examples  of 
early  Gothic  are  more  pure  or  more  perfect.  Meister 
Gerhard,  in  despair  at  the  delays  which  beset  his  work, 
entered,  so  the  story  runs,  into  a  very  unsuccessful  wager 
with  the  devil  as  regards  the  completion  of  the  cathedral. 
When  the  bet  was  lost  he  flung  himself,  to  save  his  soul, 
from  the  scaffolding.  There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that 
Meister  Gerhard  came  to  a  violent  end,  but  the  story  is 
significant  as  a  testimony  to  the  difficulties  from  which 
the  building  of  the  Dom  suffered.  These  difficulties  be- 
came accentuated  in  the  time  of  Meister  Gerhard's  suc- 
cessors. The  choir  fortunately  struggled  to  completion, 
and  in  1322  the  bones  of  the  Three  Kings,  the  most 
precious  of  all  Cologne  relics,  were  deposited  with  great 
pomp  in  their  new  shrine.  But  the  noble  design  of  the 
nave  fell  on  evil  days,  and  after  the  varying  vicissitudes 
of  several  generations  work  was  finally  abandoned,  leav- 
ing a  great  torso  instead  of  the  church  as  originally 
planned.    For  centuries  the  half -completed  aisles  mocked 


THE  KOLNER  DOM  45 

the  vision  of  the  early  master  builders.  Little  by  little 
the  nave,  which  was  shut  off  by  a  wall  from  the  choir,  fell 
into  complete  decay.  In  1796  it  was  used  by  the  occupy- 
ing French  Army  as  a  magazine  and  stable.  Some  prog- 
ress had  been  made  with  the  south  tower  before  work 
was  finally  abandoned.  But  in  modern  times  trees  were 
growing  in  the  ruins  of  the  tower,  and  a  derelict  crane, 
stranded  high  aloft  on  a  pile  of  stones  and  rubbish,  was  an 
object  of  interest  to  casual  visitors. 

Withal  a  vague  hope  persisted  through  the  centuries 
that  some  day,  somehow,  Cologne  Cathedral  would  stand 
on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  in  the  majesty  of  the  completed 
design  of  which  Meister  Gerhard  had  dreamt.  For  cen- 
turies the  hope  seemed  vain  indeed.  When  some  years 
after  the  War  of  Liberation  the  architect  Zwirner  cham- 
pioned the  idea  of  a  completed  Dom,  the  response  of 
popular  enthusiasm  was  immediate  and  complete.  The 
building  as  finished  follows  faithfully  the  ideas  of  the 
mediaeval  architect,  a  fact  for  which  we  have  to  thank  an 
extraordinary  chapter  of  accidents. 

The  story  of  the  original  plans,  which  were  recovered 
in  the  loft  of  an  inn,  reads  like  a  fairy  tale.  Before 
the  Napoleonic  wars  the  plans  of  the  cathedral  were  kept 
in  the  chapter-house.  During  the  French  occupation,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  they  were  re- 
moved for  greater  safety  to  a  Benedictine  monastery.  The 
monastery  was  broken  up  and  the  forgotten  and  neglected 
designs  came  eventually  into  the  possession  of  a  private 
family,  who  used  the  great  sheets  of  parchment  for  drying 
beans.  Subsequently  the  son  of  the  house  went  to  Darm- 
stadt for  educational  purposes.  His  anxious  mother 
thought  the  young  man's  clothes  would  be  kept  clean  and 


46  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

dry  if  his  box  were  lined  with  the  stout  parchment  sheets 
which  had  rendered  useful  service  in  the  case  of  the 
beans.  The  youth  took  up  his  residence  in  Darmstadt  at 
the  Gasthaus  zur  Traube.  Internal  evidence  shows  that, 
once  away  from  the  vigilant  maternal  eye,  the  care  of  his 
clothes  must  have  suffered.  The  coverings  intended  to 
protect  his  garments  from  dust  and  damp  were  cast  aside 
with  youthful  recklessness.  The  scrolls,  still  carrying 
their  hidden  treasure  of  the  great  design  of  the  west  end 
of  the  cathedral,  were  thrown  away  and  consigned  as 
litter  to  the  loft  of  the  inn.  There  they  were  discovered 
by  a  carpenter  sufficiently  intelligent  to  appreciate  their 
importance.  From  his  hands  they  passed  into  those  of  a 
painter,  and  eventually  after  a  journey  via  Paris  were 
returned  to  Cologne.  They  hang  to-day  in  a  chapel  of 
the  choir. 

The  stone  from  which  the  cathedral  is  built  is  quarried 
in  the  Drachenfels.  Unfortunately  it  is  soft  and  perish- 
able, and  constant  repairs  are  necessary.  Nearly  a  million 
sterling  was  spent  on  completing  the  building,  a  modest 
sum  for  so  considerable  a  work  judged  by  the  spacious 
standards  of  our  own  spendthrift  time.  The  funds  were 
raised  from  pious  founders,  from  state  help,  and  from 
lotteries.  Whether  or  not  you  admire  the  exterior  of  the 
cathedral — personally  the  answer  is  in  the  negative — 
there  can  be  nothing  but  praise  for  the  enterprise  which 
made  a  success  of  the  failure  of  the  centuries  and  the  fine 
solid  work  to  which  the  completed  Dom  bears  witness.  In 
1880,  six  hundred  years  after  the  original  founding  of  the 
cathedral  by  Archbishop  Conrad,  the  final  stone  of  the 
giant  blossom  crowning  the  south  tower  was  swung  into 
place  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor  William  i. 


THE  KOLNER  DOM  47 

Not  only  in  Cologne,  but  throughout  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many, the  completion  of  the  cathedral  was  a  signal  for 
an  outburst  of  pride  and  joy.  National  enthusiasm  knew 
no  bounds.  There  were  festivals  and  feastings  and 
pageants.  Looking  back  on  the  rejoicings  from  our  own 
standpoint  of  a  stricken  world,  we  can  recognise  of  what 
tragic  events  they  were  the  starting  point.  To  keep  a 
cool  head  when  steering  on  a  full  tide  of  success  is  a  test 
of  character  more  severe  in  its  searching  than  the  patient 
bearing  of  adversity.  Under  that  test  the  new-made  Ger- 
man Empire  broke  down  rapidly.  By  1880  Germany 
was  launched  on  the  career  which,  soon  transcending  all 
that  is  legitimate  in  national  virility  and  self -conscious- 
ness, was  to  bring  her  ultimately,  through  pride  and  ag- 
gression, to  defeat  and  downfall. 

From  the  cannon  captured  in  the  French  war  a  bell 
known  as  the  Kaiser-Glocke  was  cast,  which  became  in  a 
special  sense  the  tutelary  genius  of  the  cathedral.  Only 
on  rare  and  solemn  occasions  was  the  Kaiser-Glocke  heard. 
Then  as  its  deep  note  boomed  across  the  waters  of  the 
Rhine,  the  citizens  of  Cologne  thrilled  with  proud  mem- 
ories of  conquest  and  restored  national  life.  The  cannon 
of  a  conquered  foe  are  symbols  of  death,  destruction,  and 
defeat.  To  convert  them  as  trophies  of  victory  into  bells 
which  call  men  and  women  to  the  service  of  God  and  the 
worship  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  is  an  act  of  paganism 
removed  as  by  the  poles  from  rudimentary  Christian  ethic. 
But  though  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly  they  grind  ex- 
ceeding small,  as  the  fate  of  the  great  bell  was  to  prove. 

In  the  spring  of  19 18,  owing  to  the  acute  shortage  of 
metal,  the  Kaiser-Glocke  shared  the  doom  of  many  other 
of  the  fine  Cologne  church  bells.     To-day  its  great  cham- 


48  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

ber  stands  bare  and  empty.  The  people  of  the  town  were 
in  despair.  The  passing  of  the  bell  was  to  them  a  symbol 
of  the  passing  of  victory.  But  the  grim  needs  of  the 
hour  in  the  matter  of  munitions  had  to  be  met  at  any  cost. 
Born  of  the  things  of  death,  to  the  things  of  death  the 
bell  returned.  Reconverted  into  a  gun,  and  lost  on  the 
Western  Front — was  ever  warning  more  sombre  as  to 
the  vanity  of  human  desires  and  the  perils  which  wait  on 
human  arrogance? 

As  to  the  architectural  merits  of  the  cathedral,  opinion 
is  and  is  likely  to  remain  divided.  To  me  at  least  the  ex- 
terior is  thoroughly  unsatisfactory.  Especially  when 
viewed  from  a  distance  the  proportions  though  massive 
are  ungainly.  It  dominates  the  plain  by  its  size,  an  un- 
wieldy colossus  too  high  for  its  length.  The  openwork 
spires  sit  heavily  on  the  towers,  and  lack  the  great  elan 
and  heavenward  spring  of  buildings  such  as  Chartres  or 
Salisbury.  But  the  interior  is  a  different  matter.  I  can- 
not explain  why  proportions  which  externally  fail  to  sat- 
isfy are  harmonious  and  beautiful  within.  The  choir, 
the  apse,  the  long  forest  of  columns  carrying  the  nave, 
the  spring  of  the  vast  western  arch  between  the  towers — 
all  this  is  Gothic  in  its  strength  and  beauty.  The  splen- 
did glass  of  the  north  aisle  has  vanished  temporarily.  It 
was  taken  down  during  the  air-raids  period,  and  the  hour 
of  its  restoration  is  likely  to  tarry.  Much  of  the  remain- 
ing glass  is  poor  and  modern,  and  the  general  effect  of  the 
nave  suffers  severely  from  this  fact. 

In  the  course  of  months  I  have  learnt  to  know  Cologne 
Cathedral  intimately  and  under  many  different  aspects.  It 
is  what  a  cathedral  should  be,  the  central  pulse  of  the 
religious  life  of  the  town.     Unlike  the  barren  preaching 


THE  KOLNER  DOM  49 

houses  to  which  Protestantism  has  reduced  the  old  Gothic 
churches,  the  great  building  has  warmth  and  atmosphere. 
Before  the  shrines  and  altars,  at  all  hours  throughout  the 
day,  rich  and  poor  alike  may  be  found  at  prayer.  Some- 
times I  have  seen  three  or  four  little  children  come  in 
shyly,  hand  in  hand,  and  kneel  down  before  the  High 
Altar.  Then,  having  fulfilled  the  duty  with  which  they 
have  been  clearly  charged  by  their  elders,  they  may  be 
found  outside  a  moment  later,  chattering  and  playing, 
on  the  great  flight  of  steps  leading  down  to  the  square. 
Sometimes  peasant  women  with  their  market  baskets  will 
come  in  for  a  moment  and  bend  low  before  the  Mother 
of  God.  Under  the  coloured  scarves  are  humble  patient 
faces,  lined  with  care  and  want.  The  heavy  baskets  rest 
for  a  brief  space  on  the  broad  pavement  of  the  aisle  as 
these  poor  children  of  the  soil,  kneeling  among  the  fruits 
of  their  labours,  raise  inarticulate  prayers  to  heaven. 

At  no  point  can  the  German  character  produce  contra- 
dictions so  supreme  as  over  the  question  of  religion.  The 
extent  to  which  the  practice  of  religion,  however  exact 
and  devout,  can  remain  external  to  a  man's  life  is  an  un- 
happy fact  with  which  all  religious  systems  and  creeds  are 
too  familiar.  Germany  perhaps  supplies  the  supreme  ex- 
ample. But  to  any  one  like  myself  who  has  seen  a  good 
deal  of  Catholic  worship  in  Germany,  the  puzzle  is  neces- 
sarily acute.  In  no  country  of  the  world,  certainly  in  no 
Catholic  country,  have  I  ever  found  myself  among  con- 
gregations so  earnest  and  so  devout.  Catholicism  in  the 
Rhineland  has  a  touch  of  almost  Protestant  austerity, 
thanks  to  which  its  services  are  wholly  devoid  of  the 
tawdry  fripperies  which  will  often  make  the  hearing  of 
Mass,  say  in  Italy  or  in  parts  of  France,  seem  perfunctory 


50  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

and  insincere.  In  Catholic  Germany  the  services  strike  a 
note  of  great  dignity  and  reverence.  There  is  no  talking, 
no  moving  about,  no  coming  and  going.  Among  the 
thousands  of  English  people  who  have  passed  through 
Cologne  since  the  Occupation,  few  have  any  knowledge  of 
the  extraordinary  congregations  which,  Sunday  after  Sun- 
day, fill  the  cathedral  to  overflowing;  congregations  three 
parts  composed  of  men  of  all  ages  and  conditions.  A 
Franciscan  monk,  Father  Dionysius,  whose  fame  is  widely 
spread  throughout  the  Rhineland,  holds  these  great  con- 
gregations spellbound  week  by  week. 

Men  of  God,  those  sons  of  the  Spirit  who  arise  wherever 
the  Spirit  listeth,  transcend  all  limits  of  race  and  creed 
and  clime.  To  that  rare  company  this  German  monk  be- 
longs. An  orator  of  the  first  rank,  it  is  not  his  oratory 
which  compels,  but  the  nobility  of  his  personality  and 
the  purely  spiritual  appeal  of  his  doctrine.  The  face  is 
not  typically  ecclesiastical — it  is  too  broad,  too  fine,  too 
human.  It  has  humour  also,  for  the  Father  can  use  at 
will  the  lash  of  a  fine  irony. 

It  may  not  be  popular  to  attribute  such  qualities  to  a 
German.  "How  can  you  go  and  listen  to  one  of  these 
brutes?"  is  a  remark  more  than  once  addressed  to  me  in 
Cologne.  But  in  putting  on  record  my  impressions  of 
Germany,  it  is  not  my  object  to  minister  to  race  hatreds, 
but  to  describe  things  good  and  bad  alike  as  I  saw  them. 
The  riddle  of  the  German  at  prayer  is  difficult  indeed.  We 
write  him  off  as  a  brute  and  a  materialist.  Yet  will  our 
own  countrymen,  artisans,  professional  men,  shopkeepers, 
stand  for  hours  and  listen  to  doctrines  dealing  with  the 
first  principles  of  faith  and  of  the  things  which  concern  a 
man's  soul?    What  would  be  the  feelings  of  the  average 


THE  KOLNER  DOM  61 

Church  of  England  clergyman  if,  instead  of  a  thin  and 
depressing  congregation  mainly  composed  of  elderly 
ladies,  men  in  the  prime  of  life  crowded  out  his  church? 
For  great  though  the  reputation  of  Father  Dionysius, 
there  is  nothing  peculiar  in  the  Dom  services.  Other 
churches  are  equally  well  attended  and  equally  full.  The 
atmosphere  is  perfectly  genuine  and  sincere.  There  is 
nothing  hypocritical  about  it.  The  people  mean  what  they 
are  saying  at  the  time  they  say  it.  And  then  before  one's 
eyes  rises  the  memory  of  a  whole  series  of  evil  and  ugly 
deeds — cruelty  to  prisoners,  callousness  to  suffering,  arro- 
gance, brutality,  a  cynical  disregard  of  the  first  principles 
which  in  any  decent  society  regulate  the  relations  between 
man  and  man.  Where  has  the  application  of  religion  gone 
wrong?  I  have  often  wondered  what  the  services  in  the 
Dom  must  have  been  during  the  weeks  when  the  full  agony 
of  defeat  and  surrender  fell  upon  the  Germans — black 
hours  for  preacher  and  for  congregation  alike. 

The  service  at  which  Father  Dionysius  preaches  on 
Sunday  morning  is  a  short  sung  mass  following  on  High 
Mass.  There  is  no  choir,  but  the  congregation  themselves 
sing  old  German  chorales  while  mass  is  going  on.  Every 
seat  in  the  nave  is  filled  nearly  an  hour  before  the  service 
begins:  to  obtain  standing  room  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  pulpit  it  is  necessary  to  be  there  at  least  twenty 
minutes  beforehand.  By  the  time  mass  begins,  the  vast 
nave  and  side  aisles  of  the  cathedral  are  crowded  from  the 
doors  to  the  altar.  The  effect  of  the  thousands  of  voices 
singing  the  fine  old  German  music  in  unison  is  without 
parallel  in  my  experience.  No  act  of  congregational 
worship  in  which  I  have  ever  taken  part  can  be  compared 
with  it.    The  music,  soaring  under  the  great  vaulted  roof, 


52  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

seems  to  be  caught  up  in  the  forest  of  arches  and  to  echo 
back  again  to  earth. 

"Hier  liegt  vor  Deiner  Majestat 
Im  Staub  die  Christenschaar, 
Das  Herz  zu  Dir,  o  Gott,  erhoht. 
Die  Augen  zum  Altar." 

The  service  begins  with  this  ancient  chorale,  and  as 
voice  after  voice  joins  in  the  effect  is  indescribable.  Dur- 
ing the  solemn  moments  of  the  mass  practically  the  whole 
congregation  kneels.  Often  as  I  have  watched  some  fat 
square-headed  German  singing  the  words  of  petition  and 
penitence,  or  bending  humbly  before  the  Host,  I  have 
asked  myself  in  utter  bewilderment  what  it  all  means. 
How  are  we  to  reconcile  the  discrepancy  between  the 
sincerity  and  devotion  of  such  worshippers,  and  the 
darker,  more  sinister  sides  of  the  German  character?  The 
Rhineland,  a  Catholic  country  civilised  originally  by 
ancient  Rome,  is  not  Prussia.  But  it  is  thoroughly  Ger- 
man in  sentiment  and  outlook.  "Pious  Cologne"  had  a 
bad  reputation  for  the  treatment  of  our  prisoners.  I  have 
known  personally  two  officers  who  were  spat  upon  by 
well-dressed  women  in  the  railway  station.  Stories  well 
attested  were  told  me  of  wounded  prisoners  who  were 
insulted  when  marched  through  tlie  streets.  Many  cases 
of  crueky,  often  of  gross  cruelty,  are  proved.  To  shut 
our  eyes  to  such  facts,  or  to  minimise  them,  is  as  foolish 
as  to  write  off  the  whole  German  people  as  bred  of  Beelze- 
bub. The  passions  roused  by  years  of  bitter  warfare 
do  not  subside  with  any  formal  signing  of  peace.  Yet  to 
see  things  steadily,  and  to  see  them  whole,  is  of  all  diffi- 
cult principles  the  most  essential  in  our  relations  with 
Germany. 


THE  KOLNER  DOM  53 

The  future  of  Europe  and  of  Western  civilisation 
largely  turns  on  our  power  to  place  these  discrepant  facts 
side  by  side,  to  recognise  that  both  are  true  and  then  to 
strike  some  balance  between  them.  It  is  extraordinarily 
difficult  to  judge  what  the  incidence  of  brutality  was 
among  the  Germans  during  the  war;  how  far  it  was  nat- 
ural, how  far  deliberately  stimulated  by  those  in  authority. 
Our  own  gallant  Hun  hunters,  who  glowed  with  patriotic 
pride  and  satisfaction  over  the  persecution  of  some 
wretched  hairdresser  or  inoffensive  nursery  governess, 
are  a  sorry  proof  as  to  the  ease  with  which  vile  instincts 
can  be  cultivated  and  spread.  The  overwhelming  ma- 
jority of  the  English  in  Cologne  arrive  with  rigid  ready- 
made  ideas  about  the  country  and  people,  and  they  do  not 
part  from  them  willingly.  They  feel  it  below  their  dig- 
nity to  study  the  Boche  dispassionately,  to  watch  him  at 
work,  at  play,  at  prayer.  But  if  we  are  concerned  in  this 
distracted  world  not  to  rest  perpetually  in  the  barren  meas- 
ures of  strife,  then  it  may  be  worth  while  to  consider  dis- 
passionately what  qualities  the  Germans  possess  which 
hold  out  some  hope  for  the  future.  From  this  aspect  it 
seems  to  me  that  Cologne  Cathedral  and  its  congregations 
are  worthy  of  attention.  The  heart  of  every  man  is  an 
altar,  neglected,  desecrated  perhaps,  but  never  forfeiting 
its  right  to  serve  the  divine  purpose.  The  sacred  fire  may 
burn  low,  but  so  long  as  one  votary  remains,  holden 
though  his  eyes  may  be,  the  fire  can  never  know  extinc- 
tion. A  spark  from  heaven  may  fall  again  upon  the 
ashes  so  that  they  blaze  upwards  into  a  pure  light  of  truth 
and  knowledge.  Is  it  for  us  to  say  that  no  such  spark  can 
fall,  that  the  shrine  must  remain  for  ever  unworthy  ? 


CHAPTER  IV 
ON  THE  DOM  PLATZ 

If  the  Dom  is  the  central  point  of  the  religious  life  of 
Cologne,  the  Dom  Platz  is  no  less  the  central  point  of 
official  and  ceremonial  life  in  the  town.  During  the  last 
eighteen  months  the  massive  towers  of  the  cathedral  have 
looked  down  on  strange  and,  to  German  eyes,  unwelcome 
scenes.  It  is  all  part  of  the  German  temperament  to 
have  a  great  affection  for  reviews,  and  parades,  and 
processions.  What  is  obvious  and  pompous  makes  a  real 
appeal.  When  in  old  days  the  Uhlans  clattered  down  the 
street  and  sabres  were  rattled,  the  average  German  stand- 
ing meekly  on  the  pavement  was  filled  with  pride  at  this 
visible  demonstration  of  "Weltmacht."  Among  the  minor 
trials  of  the  Occupation,  the  absence  of  the  great  military 
displays  common  under  the  old  regime  has  been  a  sorrow 
to  the  natives  of  Cologne.  One  morning  a  military  band 
struck  up  under  the  windows  where  I  was  talking  with 
my  Fraulein.  She  nearly  jumped  from  her  seat  and  I 
saw  her  eyes  fill  with  tears:  "We  had  such  wonderful 
bands  in  old  days,"  she  said  sadly.  But  the  large  majority 
of  her  fellow-citizens  are  less  sensitive.  "Quand  on  n'a 
pas  ce  que  Ton  aime  il  faut  aimer  ce  que  Ton  a" — a  sensible 
doctrine  on  which  apparently  the  Boche  acts.  For  his 
habit  of  turning  up  in  large  numbers  at  every  function 
held  by  the  English  on  the  cathedral  square  is  sufficiently 
surprising. 

54 


ON  THE  DOM  PLATZ  65 

Can  we  imagine  a  German  parade  held  in  front  of  Buck- 
ingham Palace  to  which  the  inhabitants  of  London  would 
flock?  We  should,  full  of  rage  and  mortification,  be 
burying  our  heads  and  ears  in  the  remotest  quarters  of  the 
suburbs.  But  the  Germans,  in  this  as  in  other  respects  so 
strangely  constituted,  have  apparently  no  feelings  on  the 
subject.  They  attend  in  large  numbers  and  follow  the 
proceedings  with  deep  interest.  On  occasions  when  I 
have  been  among  the  crowd  myself,  I  have  not  seen  or 
heard  any  signs  of  hostility.  In  early  days  the  conscript 
Army  of  the  Occupation  was  hardly  up  to  the  standard 
which  Prussianism  had  exacted  of  its  legions.  But  crit- 
icism at  least  was  never  audible.  There  have  been  re- 
views in  later  times  on  the  Dom  Platz  which  could  hold 
their  own  with  any  of  the  past.  Often  have  I  longed  to 
see  what  was  going  on  inside  the  shaved  square  heads  of 
the  spectators  as  the  British  troops  marched  by.  What 
were  the  Germans  thinking  about  these  trained  and  dis- 
ciplined men  belonging  to  the  conquering  Army  they  had 
been  taught  to  despise  ?  For  how  great  a  gamut  of  fail- 
ure and  disillusion  these  khaki-clad  ranks  must  stand  1 

The  Tanks  are  always  impressive  as  they  lumber  along, 
menacing  as  some  prehistoric  monster.  They  must  be  un- 
pleasant objects  to  meet  on  the  battlefield  if  your  side 
does  not  happen  to  hold  the  counter  to  them.  Many  Ger- 
man eyes  follow  them  as  they  waddle  about  the  square. 
In  lighter  vein,  the  Highlanders,  as  always  abroad,  excite 
a  great  deal  of  interest.  "We  saw  your  Scottish  troops," 
is  the  invariable  remark  after  a  review,  and  then  follow 
endless  inquiries  as  to  the  why  and  wherefore  of  such 
extraordinary  clothes.  A  ring  of  Germans  at  a  race 
meeting  collected  round  the  very  excellent  band  of  the 


56  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

Black  Watch  and  applauding  the  music  is  a  memory  which 
survives.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Occupation  it  was  an 
order  to  salute  the  colours  and  remove  hats  when  God 
Save  the  King  was  played.  But  though  the  order  has  long 
since  been  repealed  the  habit  persists.  The  large  majority 
of  German  hats  come  off  when  the  National  Anthem  be- 
gins. With  a  different  government  and  ideals  a  people 
so  tractable  might  have  been  led  in  a  direction  widely  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  has  overwhelmed  themselves  and 
others  in  ruin. 

Many  striking  ceremonies  have  been  held  in  the  Dom 
Platz  under  English  rule.  Great  figures  and  great  names 
concerned  with  the  making  of  history  have  played  their 
parts  in  them.  We  have  welcomed  the  generals  to  whom 
France  owes  her  salvation — Joffre,  who  came  unofficially 
and  seemed  a  little  bored  at  being  shown  off;  Foch,  the 
conqueror,  who  arrived  early  one  cold  spring  morning 
only  to  find  Germans,  anxious  to  have  a  look  at  him, 
clinging  figuratively  to  every  crocket  of  the  cathedral. 
Photographers  are  busy  on  these  occasions ;  very  interest- 
ing is  a  picture  of  Marshal  Joffre  and  Sir  William  Robert- 
son standing  alone  together  on  the  north  terrace  of  the 
cathedral.  The  steps  were  strewn  at  the  moment  with  un- 
hewn blocks  of  stone  brought  there  for  restoration  pur- 
poses. The  stone,  solid  and  rugged,  seemed  to  symbolise 
the  characters  of  both  men — soldiers  not  easily  moved 
from  their  purpose  or  their  duty.  We  have  received  the 
Army  Council  in  state,  and  the  politicians  have  looked  at 
the  crowd  and  the  crowd  at  the  politicians.  Mr.  Winston 
Churchill — grey  frock  coat  and  top  hat  to  match — has 
been  duly  admired.  We  have  commemorated  great  events 
and  decorated  our  brothers  in  arms  among  the  Allied 


ON  THE  DOM  PLATZ  57 

Armies.  Then  on  the  morrow,  in  sharp  contrast  to  the 
mihtary  display;  may  follow  some  great  Catholic  cere- 
monial, wholly  German  in  character. 

Religious  processions  lend  much  variety  and  colour  to 
street  life  in  Cologne,  Throughout  the  summer  months 
each  parish  has  a  procession  every  Sunday  morning; 
long  rows  of  priests,  nuns,  children,  and  parishion- 
ers walk  through  the  streets  carrying  banners,  flowers, 
and  emblems.  The  central  point  of  the  procession  is  the 
canopy  under  which  the  priest  carries  the  Host.  Red- 
robed  acolytes  swing  censers  as  they  move  slowly  along. 
Altars  are  erected  at  convenient  halting  points  in  the 
streets,  where  prayers  are  said  and  hymns  chanted.  The 
pavement  is  strewn  with  green  boughs,  houses  are  deco- 
rated, and  the  faithful  erect  shrines  with  crucifixes,  sacred 
images,  candles,  flowers,  etc.  These  local  festivals  cul- 
minate in  the  most  famous  of  all  Cologne  processions — 
that  of  Corpus  Christi.  On  that  day  every  ecclesiastic, 
great  and  small,  from  the  Archbishop  downwards,  as  well 
as  every  Catholic  guild  and  society,  take  part  in  an  elab- 
orate and  impressive  tour  of  the  town.  The  vestments 
are  of  a  gorgeous  character.  The  uniforms  worn  by 
the  guilds  are  of  quaint  design  and  many-coloured.  The 
centuries  roll  backwards,  and  for  a  brief  space  the  finger 
of  the  Middle  Ages  touches  the  modern  city.  The  proces- 
sion concludes  with  a  service  in  the  cathedral,  and  the 
great  company  of  people  winding  across  the  square  with 
banners  and  emblems  and  passing  up  the  steps  suggests 
some  mediaeval  picture.  Religious  processions  are  the 
only  German  pageants  which  survive  to-day  on  the  Dom 
Platz.  One  event  alone  on  the  square,  brief  but  mem- 
orable, has  concerned  conquerors  and  conquered  alike — 


58  WATCHIxNG  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  first  commemoration  of  the  Armistice  on  nth  No- 
vember 1919.  Yet  of  all  my  recollections  of  the  square  it 
remains  the  most  impressive. 

A  bitter  morning  with  a  blizzard  driving  across  the 
river;  snovvflakes  drift  disconsolately  over  the  square,  as 
though  doubtful  of  trying  conclusions  with  the  sombre 
pile  of  the  cathedral  surveying  the  scene  with  gloomy 
aloofness.  Under  foot  dirt  and  slush.  From  every  cor- 
ner of  the  square  whistles  a  wind  which  pierces  through 
furs  and  coats.  Yet  the  usual  crowd  of  German  spec- 
tators are  there,  pressing  as  is  their  wont  on  the  ranks 
of  the  men  in  khaki  who  line  the  square.  No  less  crowded 
are  the  cathedral  steps,  on  which  stand  a  row  of  trumpet- 
ers. I  came  late,  to  find  to  my  surprise  that  my  neigh- 
bours are  nearly  all  Germans.  In  spite  of  the  dreadful 
weather  there  is  little  movement  among  the  crowd.  Peo- 
ple speak  under  their  breath,  as  though  in  the  presence  of 
some  great  solemnity.  English  and  Germans  alike,  we 
are  thinking  of  our  dead.  For  a  moment  we  draw  near 
to  one  another  in  the  consciousness  of  common  sorrow, 
common  loss,  common  pride.  The  snow  drives  in  our 
faces,  the  merciless  wind  searches  out  the  shivering  crowd 
cowering  under  its  umbrellas. 

Then  the  hour  strikes,  and  a  word  of  command  rings 
out  from  the  half-obliterated  square,  where  the  khaki 
lines  can  be  seen  dimly  through  the  driving  snow.  Um- 
brellas are  lowered;  cruel  though  the  weather,  German 
hats  are  all  removed.  A  lad  standing  near  me,  obviously 
cold  and  shivering,  shows  signs  of  keeping  his  cap  on;  an 
older  German  man  has  it  off  in  a  moment.  The  trumpet- 
ers step  forward  on  the  cathedral  steps,  and  in  a  silence 


ON  THE  DOM  PLATZ  59 

broken  only  by  the  moaning  of  the  wind  the  Last  Post 
is  heard.  For  most  British  folks  those  famihar  notes, 
which  salute  the  sinking  sun  and  say  farewell  to  the  dead, 
are  at  all  times  full  of  poignant  memory.  But  never 
surely  have  they  been  heard  under  conditions  more  poign- 
ant than  in  the  heart  of  an  enemy  town  on  the  first  an- 
niversary of  the  Armistice.  Is  it  two  minutes  or  two 
hours  that  we  stand  in  that  unbroken  silence — no  sound, 
no  murmur,  no  movement  from  the  dense  crowd?  For 
the  men  and  women  on  the  square,  be  they  British  or 
German,  what  memories  are  packed  into  those  tense  mo- 
ments! The  snow  falls  fitfully:  again  a  word  of  com- 
mand is  heard :   the  brief  ceremony  is  over. 

So  we  salute  our  glorious  dead,  and  who  is  ungenerous 
enough  in  such  an  hour  to  withhold  respect  from  the 
brave  men  among  our  foes  who  fell  in  the  service  of  their 
country  doing  their  duty  as  simply  as  those  whose  names 
and  memories  we  cherish?  "So  long  as  men  are  doing 
their  duty,  even  if  it  be  greatly  under  a  misapprehension, 
they  are  leading  pattern  lives,"  writes  Robert  Louis  Ste- 
venson. Strife  and  bitterness  belong  to  the  things 
temporal.  We  may  rest  assured  that  the  heroes  of  all 
races  who  meet  and  greet  each  other  in  Valhalla  will  drink 
without  hatred  in  their  hearts  from  the  cup  of  reconcilia- 
tion. 

Felix  von  Hartmann,  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Cologne, 
is  dead.  For  a  week  he  has  lain  in  state  in  the  crypt  of 
the  Gereonskirche,  watched  by  day  and  by  night  by  monks 
and  nuns  who  pray  unceasingly  for  the  repose  of  his  soul. 
Round  the  bier  ablaze  with  candles  pours  a  steady  stream 
of  spectators  and  mourners.     The  faithful  have  come  in 


60  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

their  thousands  to  bid  farewell  to  the  chief  shepherd  of 
the  flock.  For  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  is  the  greatest 
ecclesiastical  dignitary  in  Germany.  Cologne  is  the  pre- 
mier See,  and  in  old  days  the  rank  of  its  Archbishop  stood 
second  only  to  that  of  the  Emperor ;  Cardinal  von  Hart- 
mann's  death  must  have  stirred  some  painful  memories 
in  the  breast  of  the  Amerongen  exile.  'Emperor  and 
Cardinal,  despite  their  differences  of  faith,  were  firm 
friends.  Felix  von  Hartmann  was  a  Prussian  of  the 
Prussians,  and  united  by  many  personal  ties  to  the  Kaiser. 
Even  in  death  the  face  had  lost  nothing  of  its  pride  and 
haughtiness.  He  looked  every  inch  of  a  Prince  of  the 
Church  and  a  ruler  of  men  as  he  lay  at  the  last  on  his 
bier.  The  gorgeous  vestments,  the  pastoral  staff,  the 
great  ring  worn  on  the  red  gloves  covering  the  nerveless 
hands :  all  this  was  impressive  and  dignified.  But  it  was 
not  a  countenance  even  in  the  great  calm  of  death  which 
bore  much  trace  of  the 'milder  Christian  virtues. 

Cardinal  von  Hartmann  took  a  violently  pro-national 
line  about  the  war.  Race  hatreds  and  animosities  were 
fanned,  not  discouraged  by  him.  His  correspondence  with 
Cardinal  Mercier  shows  how  perfunctory  were  his  efforts 
as  regards  any  alleviation  of  the  lot  of  prisoners  or  the 
civilian  victims  of  the  struggle.  Bitterly  anti-English, 
the  proud  Prussian  Cardinal  must  have  suffered  a  full 
measure  of  humiliation  when  he  lived  to  see  his  cathedral 
city  in  British  Occupation.  Some  Tommies  unacquainted 
with  Catholic  ritual,  who  saw  him  in  the  street  one  day 
wearing  a  mitre  and  greeted  him  as  Father  Christmas, 
roused  his  special  ire.  A  man  of  war  rather  than  a  man 
of  peace,  the  British  authorities  were  under  no  obligations 
to  him  as  regards  any  assistance  with  their  task.     Now 


ON  THE  DOM  PLATZ  61 

he  lies  dead  it  falls  to  their  lot,  by  an  irony  specially  cruel 
in  the  Archbishop's  case,  to  keep  order  at  his  funeral. 

In  old  days,  so  my  Fraulein  tells  me,  the  funeral  of  an 
Archbishop  of  Cologne  was  a  tremendous  event.  The 
Emperor  in  all  probability  would  have  attended  in  person. 
The  occasion  would  have  lent  itself  to  a  great  military 
display,  soldiers  lining  the  route,  the  Prussian  Guard  add- 
ing lustre  to  the  scene.  Shorn  of  all  its  pomp  and  cere- 
mony must  the  occasion  necessarily  be  in  view  of  the  Oc- 
cupation. But  it  was  the  weather  which  conspired  to  make 
a  melancholy  event  still  more  depressing.  Never  have  I 
seen  a  more  dismal  ceremony  than  that  of  the  Archbishop's 
funeral,  which  was  held,  of  course,  within  the  Dom.  Rain 
and  sleet  descended  mercilessly,  while  squalls  of  wind 
swept  the  square.  The  long  procession  of  priests,  monks, 
nuns,  students,  and  children  was  wet  and  draggled.  The 
white-robed  choristers  and  the  acolytes  carrying  ineffectual 
candles  were  no  less  dripping.  Particularly  miserable 
looked  a  detachment  of  unfortunate  orphan  children  whose 
thin  clothes  and  shoes  were  soaked  by  the  penetrating 
rain.  The  monks  and  nuns  and  other  ecclesiastics  had 
provided  themselves  sensibly  with  umbrellas,  but  withal 
the  wonderful  vestments  with  their  lace  and  embroidery 
must  have  suffered  severely.  There  is  always  a  wind  on 
the  Dom  Platz,  and  to-day  the  angry  gusts  led  to  many 
struggles  between  umbrellas  and  their  holders.  In  de- 
fault of  soldiers  the  numerous  student  guilds  in  their 
many  coloured  uniforms  had  turned  out  in  force.  They 
alone  with  their  banners  struck  a  note  which  varied  the 
drabness  of  the  scene.  But  the  pitiless  rain  beat  down  on 
them  and  caused  the  gay  flags  to  hang  faded  and  colour- 
less.    It  was  as  though  some  wind  devil  had  established 


62  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

itself  opposite  the  main  entrance  of  the  cathedral  and  was 
bent  on  plaguing  the  Archbishop's  mourners.  Banner  after 
banner  was  caught  by  the  wind  and  overthrown  at  that 
point ;  portly  ecclesiastics  were  swept  off  their  feet ;  nuns 
held  on  despairingly  to  their  great  white  caps  which 
threatened  to  fly  away.  Despite  the  leaden  sky  and  pour- 
ing rain  the  square  was  crowded  with  spectators. 

Keeping  the  line  were  a  few  British  Military  Police 
mounted  on  their  fine  grey  horses.  England  is  not  given 
to  pompous  advertisements  of  her  strength,  and  the  might 
of  the  Empire  is  symbolised  rather  than  represented  by 
this  handful  of  men.  At  the  head  of  the  whole  procession, 
as  it  wound  its  way  singing  solemn  chants  from  the 
Gereonskirche  to  the  cathedral,  rode  a  detachment  of  the 
same  mounted  police.  As  the  familiar  grey  horses  ap- 
peared, who  could  fail  to  reflect  on  the  ironical  staging  of 
events  in  which  Fate  so  often  seems  to  delight?  It  is 
not  only  that  the  accounts  are  balanced.  A  spirit  of  fine 
mockery  appears  not  infrequently  over  the  audit.  That 
the  police  of  the  detested  enemy  power  should  clear  the 
way  when  Cardinal  von  Hartmann  of  all  men  was  carried 
to  his  last  resting-place,  is  a  circumstance  to  give  pause  to 
the  proud  when  life  flows  apparently  in  prosperous  chan- 
nels. 

At  last  came  the  modest  black  bier,  drawn  by  two  de- 
crepit-looking horses,  in  which  the  coffin  of  the  Cardinal 
was  placed.  As  was  becoming  in  a  Prince  of  the  Church, 
there  were  no  flowers  or  decorations  of  any  kind.  A  group 
of  high  ecclesiastics  surrounded  the  bier,  and  the  melan- 
choly chanting  of  the  choristers,  together  with  the  prayers 
of  the  priests,  rose  like  incense  to  the  grey  unfriendly 
heaven.     Everything  was  wet  and  cold  and  drab  and 


ON  THE  DOM  PLATZ  63 

shabby.  Perhaps  the  most  dismal  touch  in  a  dismal  cere- 
monial was  the  unusual  sight  of  two  German  officers  in 
full  uniform  who  walked  behind  the  coffin.  They  had 
come  by  permission  from  the  Bridgehead  to  do  honour 
to  the  Archbishop.  These  forlorn-looking  representatives 
of  the  broken  military  power,  what  bitter  memories  the 
situation  must  hold  for  them  as  they  find  themselves  face 
to  face  with  the  khaki  police  keeping  order  in  Cologne ! 
The  bier  halted  before  the  west  door  of  the  Dom. 
Black-robed  monks  carried  the  coffin  swiftly  up  the  steps. 
As  it  passed  within  the  great  main  portal  the  thick  black 
line  of  the  spectators  broke  at  last,  and  a  vast  crowd  of 
people  poured  across  the  square  and  followed  the  proces- 
sion through  the  open  doors  into  the  cathedral.  The 
crowd  was  so  dense  that  you  might  have  thought  all 
Cologne  was  on  the  square.  Yet  the  vast  Dom  had  no 
difficulty  in  absorbing  the  mass  of  men  and  women  who 
flocked  up  the  steps  and  disappeared  within.  When 
shortly  afterwards  I  made  my  own  way  across  to  the 
cathedral,  there  was  still  ample  room  in  the  nave  to  move 
about  freely.  The  choir  was  hung  in  black  and  silver 
and  myriad  electric  lights  defined  the  exquisite  outlines  of 
the  pointed  arches.  The  coffin  rested  under  a  black  and 
silver  catafalque.  Everything  was  severe  and  dignified 
without  one  tawdry  note.  The  solemn  funeral  mass  was 
very  lengthy.  A  brother  bishop  preached  about  the  virtues 
and  qualities  of  the  dead  Cardinal.  Then  at  a  given 
moment  all  the  bells — those  that  remain  of  the  cathedral — 
were  tolled,  and  from  every  church  in  Cologne  bells  tolled 
in  reply.  The  coffin  had  been  lowered  to  its  resting-place 
near  the  High  Altar;  Felix  von  Hartmann  had  vanished 
forever  from  the  scene  of  his  labours.     The  weather. 


C4.  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

whimsical  to  the  last,  had  changed  its  mind  while  the 
service  was  going  on.  I  came  out  into  bright  sunshine 
on  the  cathedral  steps.  Having  ruined  the  procession 
and  soaked  the  pious,  it  was  now  pleased  to  be  fine. 

Unfortunately  I  was  not  in  Cologne  for  the  more  cheer- 
ful ceremony  of  the  enthronement  of  the  new  Archbishop, 
Dr.  Schultz.  Cardinal  von  Hartmann's  successor  is  at 
present  a  somewhat  unknown  quantity  in  public  affairs. 
But  if  he  lacks  the  commanding  appearance  and  aristo- 
cratic features  of  his  predecessor,  Dr.  Schultz  is  in  many 
ways  a  more  attractive  personality.  His  face  is  wise  and 
benevolent ;  a  face  which  gives  the  impression  not  only  of 
goodness  but  of  good  sense.  Republican  rule  in  Germany 
must  result  in  many  changes  in  the  relations  of  the  Church 
and  State.  Hot  controversy  already  rages  about  various 
points,  in  particular  the  burning  question  of  religious 
education  in  the  schools.  That  men  of  wisdom  and  mod- 
eration should  hold  high  positions  in  Germany  is  a  mat- 
ter of  importance,  not  only  to  their  own  country  but  to 
the  Allies  as  well.  Honesty  and  goodwill  on  the  part  of 
all  concerned  are  essential  to  the  growth  of  a  better  un- 
derstanding. If  the  new  Archbishop  of  Cologne  can  make 
some  contribution  to  this  end,  he  will  have  deserved  well 
of  his  country  and  his  church. 


CHAPTER  V 
BILLETS 

Every  billet  has  its  crab.  To  that  rule  there  is,  I  believe, 
no  exception.  The  crab  may  be  physical  or  moral,  but 
the  crab  exists.  Conquerors  and  conquered  come  up 
against  each  other  in  a  peculiarly  intimate  way  when  shel- 
tered by  the  same  roof.  Stop  and  reflect  on  the  condi- 
tions under  which  we  English  live  in  German  houses, 
and  the  marvel  is  not  that  friction  sometimes  arises,  but 
that  friction  is  not  chronic. 

Under  the  terms  of  the  Peace  Treaty  the  German 
authorities  in  the  Occupied  Areas  are  bound  to  provide 
housing,  light,  and  firing,  together  with  service,  plate,  and 
house  linen,  for  Allied  officers  and  their  families.  The 
number  of  rooms  allotted  varies  according  to  rank,  addi- 
tional rooms  if  wanted  must  be  paid  for  by  the  officer  in 
question.  Into  the  middle  of  these  German  families, 
therefore,  we  arrive  bag  and  baggage,  occupy  by  rights 
the  principal  rooms,  while  the  owners  squeeze  into  the 
remainder  as  best  they  may.  All  of  which  is  la  guerre, 
and  when  we  reflect  on  the  behaviour  of  the  German 
armies  in  France  and  Belgium,  we  can  only  feel  that 
Cologne  and  the  Rhineland  have  little  to  grumble  about. 
The  war  was  not  of  our  making,  and  between  the  two 
alternatives  of  sitting  in  the  German  houses  or  the  Ger- 
mans sitting  in  ours,  naturally  we  prefer  the  former. 

German  houses  reveal  a  great  deal  about  the  German 

65 


66  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

character.  The  spirit  of  a  people  is  bound  to  impress  it- 
self on  their  daily  surroundings,  and  German  virtues  and 
German  faults  are  writ  large  over  the  residential  quar- 
ters of  Cologne.  On  the  material  side  the  houses  are 
admirable.  They  are  sound,  well-built,  excellent  examples 
of  good  solid  workmanship.  Excellent  too  are  all  the  ma- 
terial appointments.  Hot  and  cold  water,  baths,  electric 
light,  first-rate  kitchen  apparatus — every  practical  comfort 
and  convenience  exists  which  simplifies  life  for  the  house- 
wife. Central  heating  is  the  rule.  There  are  no  fires 
or  fireplaces,  though  some  houses  have  an  open  grate  in 
the  principal  room  for  auxiliary  gas,  or  wood.  At  first 
the  hearthless  ro'oms  are  very  cheerless,  but  by  degrees 
you  discover  virtue  in  the  even  temperature  of  the 
house.  Also  the  saving  in  dirt  and  the  saving  in  labour 
are  considerable.  No  less  excellent  are  all  the  fittings, 
window  sashes,  doors,  floors,  etc.  Everything  dovetails 
perfectly;  there  are  no  draughts,  no  signs  of  jerry-build- 
ing. All  that  is  material  is  handled  with  complete  effi- 
ciency. 

But  beauty — here  we  come  to  the  ground  with  a  crash. 
Never  were  houses,  taking  them  all  round,  so  ugly  and  so 
devoid  of  taste.  The  furniture  and  pictures  give  one  a 
pain  across  the  eyes.  Ohjets  d'art,  costly  and  incongru- 
ous, are  jumbled  together  in  the  wildest  confusion.  I 
have  been  in  drawing-rooms  in  which  Flemish  tapestries, 
Japanese  lacquer,  Louis  xv.  chairs,  Meshrebiya  work 
from  Cairo,  Indian  embroideries,  bastard  Jacobean  chairs, 
Chinese  dragons,  and  modern  Dresden  shepherdesses  were 
locked  together  in  a  deadly  conflict  to  which  the  Hinden- 
burg  line  must  have  been  child's  play.  Robust  oil  paint- 
ings   usually    look    down  on  the  struggle.     Admirable 


BILLETS  67 

though  the  German  taste  in  music,  the  race  appears  to  be 
without  eyes  as  regards  the  plastic  arts.  The  degree  to 
which  the  things  of  the  spirit  have  atrophied  in  modern 
Germany  is  writ  large  across  these  dwelling-places.  In 
their  material  excellence,  as  in  their  aesthetic  failures,  they 
are  a  true  touchstone  of  the  race. 

Meanwhile,  surely  no  Army  of  Occupation  was  ever  so 
well  housed  or  so  comfortable  as  we  are.  Human  nature 
being  what  it  is,  competition  about  billets  is  naturally 
keen.  Bcati  possidentcs  is  the  happy  state  of  those  who 
have  secured  the  best  accommodation  in  the  palaces  of 
the  local  plutocracy.  Yet  withal  some  of  us  never  shake 
off  a  sense  of  discomfort  and  oppression  as  regards  con- 
ditions of  life  so  radically  artificial.  There  is  something 
very  depressing  in  the  general  atmosphere  of  a  con- 
quered people.  Even  when  your  personal  relations  with 
the  German  household  are  pleasant,  the  feeling  remains. 
Too  great  a  stream  of  blood  and  tears  has  flowed  between 
the  Germans  and  ourselves:  It  is  impossible  to  forget  the 
sufferings  and  trials  which  have  led  up  to  our  presence 
on  the  Rhine,  even  though  the  sufferings  are  not  confined 
to  one  side.  A  very  small  grain  of  imagination  is  neces- 
sary in  order  to  realise  what  a  military  occupation  would 
have  meant  to  us.  Admittedly,  if  the  war  had  come  to  a 
different  end,  we  should  have  felt  to  the  full  the  weight 
of  the  Prussian  jackboot.  The  Boche  as  a  conqueror  can 
be  intolerable — swollen-headed,  swaggering,  brutal.  Vic- 
tory would  have  intensified  tenfold  every  bad  quality  the 
race  possesses.  But  leaving  aside  any  question  of  per- 
sonal outrage  and  indignity,  what  should  we  have  felt 
as  to  the  hard  fact  of  the  conqueror  established  on  our 


68  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

hearths,  even  though  the  conqueror  brought  with  him 
standards  of  justice  and  decent  behaviour? 

Let  us  imagine  our  houses  invaded  by  Prussian  officers 
who  would  have  demanded  as  by  right  the  best  rooms 
and  the  best  appointments.  Let  us  further  imagine  they 
bring  German  servants,  who  are  installed  in  the  basement 
and  have  to  work  somehow  with  our  English  maids.  I 
often  ponder  the  situation  in  the  terms  of  my  own  house- 
hold. What  I  always  feel  is  that,  hard  though  it  would 
have  been  to  endure  the  presence  of  the  officers,  the  final 
straw  would  have  been  the  arrival  of  their  womenkind 
and  children.  The  invasion  of  one's  home  by  fat  German 
Fraus  would  have  proved  the  final  and  most  bitter  filling 
up  of  the  cup.  As  a  race  we  should  have  taken  the  in- 
evitable billeting  consequences  of  an  occupation  ill  in- 
deed. Conflicts  would  have  been  numerous,  and  the 
heavy  Prussian  hand  would  have  driven  us  down  into 
even  lower  depths  of  misery. 

Now  nothing  of  this  sort  exists  in  Cologne.  Primarily 
the  English  are  not  Germans,  and  cordially  though  many 
of  them  detest  the  Boche,  the  English  sense  of  decency 
and  fair  play  checks  any  furtive  growths  of  Prussianism 
among  our  own  people.  The  average  English  person  in 
Cologne  is  not  concerned  to  ruffle  it  as  a  conqueror,  but 
to  enjoy  life  as  much  as  possible  under  conditions  so 
pleasant  and  so  comfortable.  But  also  the  Germans  are 
not  English,  and  it  is  all  part  of  the  mental  equipment  of 
these  people  that  they  accept,  quite  as  a  matter  of  course, 
conditions  which  would  drive  us  frantic.  Nothing  has 
surprised  me  more  than  the  philosophy  with  which  they 
endure  our  presence.  Detestable  as  conquerors,  they  be- 
have exceedingly  well  as  conquered.     I  can  only  conclude 


BILLETS  69 

this  attitude  is  all  part  of  the  war  game  to  which  they 
have  been  trained.  They  play  to  win  and  are  ruthless 
when  the  prizes  fall  to  their  lot.  But  equally  they  are 
taught  to  take  defeat  without  whining,  and  to  accept  its 
trials  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  Germans  of  the  Occu- 
pied Area  have  been,  generally  speaking,  correct  and  dig- 
nified in  their  attitude.  They  are  neither  subservient  nor 
aggressive.  Their  lack  of  imagination  as  a  race,  and  the 
three  extra  skins  of  which  I  have  spoken  elsewhere,  no 
doubt  help  them  over  situations  which  would  be  unen- 
durable to  more  sensitive  people. 

But  I  must  repeat  every  billet  has  its  crab.  English 
society  in  Cologne  is  provided  with  two  standing  subjects 
of  small  talk  unknown  to  us  at  home.  The  hard-worked 
weather  is  able  to  have  a  rest  while  we  discuss  in  detail 
the  shortcomings  and  idiosyncrasies  of  our  Fraus  or  the 
hideousness  of  the  furniture  in  our  billets.  "What  a 
trial  for  you  to  have  to  live  with  these  dreadful  pictures," 
is  a  common  gambit  when  you  go  out  to  tea.  As  I  have 
said  before,  the  utter  lack  of  taste  of  the  average  German 
house  is  apt  to  hit  you  between  the  eyes,  and  not  only  do 
we  examine  each  other's  billets  with  care,  but  criticism 
is  audible. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  habit  will  not  become  chronic. 
Otherwise  some  of  us  who  are  absent-minded  will  be  in 
difficulties  when  we  return  home.  I  can  see  myself  look- 
ing round  the  ugly  house  of  a  dear  friend  and  remarking 
genially,  "What  shocking  taste  the  people  who  live  here 
must  have — did  you  ever  see  such  ghastly  furniture?" 

But  if  we  on  our  side  discuss  our  Fraus,  assuredly  the 
Fraus  at  their  various  Kafifee-Klatsches  discuss  their 
English  lodgers  just  as  thoroughly.     Much  shaking  of 


70  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

heads  and  mutual  commiseration  must  take  place  as  the 
cups  go  round.  I  have  no  doubt  that  one  story  caps  an- 
other as  regards  the  enormities  of  the  batmen,  the  dirt 
and  breakages  in  the  kitchen,  and  the  general  fecklessness 
and  irresponsibility  of  the  English  women  whose  days  are 
spent  not  in  housework  but  in  pleasure. 

Our  personal  billeting  experiences  have  been  fortunate. 
The  house  in  which  we  have  lived  for  many  months  is 
small  as  Cologne  houses  go,  but  very  comfortable.  As  I 
have  said  before,  the  German  house  may  fail  in  taste,  but 
it  does  not  fail  in  the  practical  advantages  of  electric  light 
and  bathrooms.  Our  Frau  is  a  widow,  a  slight,  dark, 
nervous  woman  more  French  than  German  in  appearance. 
She  knows  her  Europe,  and  travelled  annually  before  the 
war  in  Italy  and  France.  French  is  the  language  in  which 
we  converse.  Her  attitude  towards  us  was  from  the  first 
entirely  correct  and  civil ;  as  time  went  on  it  has  become 
friendly  and  pleasant.  Insensibly  human  and  personal 
relations  grow  up  when  people  live  together  month  after 
month  under  the  same  roof.  I  shall  be  sorry  to  say 
good-bye,  and  I  hope  her  recollections  of  us  will  not  be 
unpleasant.  But  despite  her  politeness  and  self-control,  I 
have  always  felt  that  few  women  in  Cologne  can  be  more 
tried  by  the  fact  of  having  strangers  billeted  on  her.  A 
housewife  with  an  almost  fanatical  sense  of  cleanliness 
and  order,  engaged  from  morning  till  night  in  cleaning 
and  tidying,  the  advent  of  the  English  soldiery  must  have 
been  a  burthen  hard  to  bear.  Yet  like  all  her  race,  she 
accepts  the  situation  outwardly  with  calm  whatever  her 
inner  feelings.  She  was  inclined  to  welcome  our  advent 
as  we  succeeded  a  mess,  and  to  have  a  mess  in  your  house 
is  to  the  German  Hausfrau  a  circle  of  Inferno  to  which 


BILLETS  71 

there  is  only  one  lower  stage — having  black  troops  put  in. 
But  if  our  relations  with  Madame  have  always  been 
pleasant,  and  I  am  indebted  to  her  for  many  small  acts 
of  kindness,  heavy  weather  has  obtained  not  infrequently 
below  stairs.    The  crab  of  our  billet  is  Gertrude,  the  cross 
cook  who  has  lived  with  Madame  for  many  years,  and 
has  great  weight  with  her.    Gertrude  is  a  lump  of  respect- 
ability, virtue,  and  disagreeableness.     She  hates  the  Eng- 
lish with  a  complete  and  deadly  hatred,  and  she  leaves  no 
stone  unturned  to  make  things  uncomfortable  in  the  base- 
ment.    Hence  a  series  of  fierce  feuds  with  a  succession 
of  soldier  servants.     I  admit  the  soldier  servant  is  apt  to 
be  a  trial.    How  can  he  be  otherwise?    Domestic  service 
is  a  skilled  art,  and  the  Army  can  hardly  be  regarded  as 
a  school  for  house  parlourmaids.     I  am  grieved  to  say 
that  there  is  no  guile  or  deception  to  which  an  officer  will 
not  stoop  to  secure,  by   fair  means  or   foul,  a  batman 
trained  in  a  pantry.     One  pearl  of  great  price  have  I 
known,  an  exception  to  all  rules.    But  good  fellows  though 
many  of  them  are,  the  average  batman  is  apt  to  be  casual 
and  inefficient.     His  execution  among  glass  and  crockery 
is  deadly.     I  have  often  wondered,   judging   from  the 
weekly  holocaust,  whether  it  is  a  rule  among  soldier  serv- 
ants to  play  Aunt  Sally  in  the  basement  with  the  tall  thin- 
stemmed  German  wine  glasses  whose  days  are  so  brief  and 
evil.     Withal  they  are  generally  good-tempered  fellows, 
and  in  many  houses  get  on  quite  well  with  the  German 
servants. 

But  naturally  no  Englishman  is  prepared  to  receive 
back-chat  from  a  cross  Hun.  Consequently  in  the  base- 
ment sector  of  our  own  house  skirmishing  is  chronic.  For 
some  time  Gertrude  cooked  for  us,  but  as  her  culinary 


72  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

performances  were  very  moderate,  it  was  no  sorrow  when 
one  day,  after  a  pitched  battle  below  stairs — a  battle  of 
such  intensity  that  murmurs  of  the  strife  floated  up  to  us 
even  through  the  well-fitting  doors — she  flung  down  her 
pots  and  pans  and  declared  she  would  roast  and  boil  no 
more.  Since  then  we  have  had  our  own  German  cook, 
who  has  played  the  part  of  buffer  state  between  the 
contending  camps,  and  a  far  greater  measure  of  peace  has 
prevailed.  But  all  this  makes  an  undercurrent  of  unpleas- 
antness which  reveals  how  thin  is  the  crust  of  conven- 
tionality on  the  top  of  which  we  live,  Gertrude,  when 
the  storms  were  at  their  worst,  never  failed  to  us  per- 
sonally in  respect  and  good  manners,  but  her  unfriendly 
face,  sour  and  virtuous,  is  a  trial  about  the  house.  She 
comes  from  Diiren,  which  was  heavily  bombed  during 
the  war.  Though  the  Germans  initiated  air  raids,  the 
return  of  these  particular  chickens  to  roost  filled  them 
with  panic  and  disgust.  Perhaps  life  has  been  embittered 
for  Gertrude  by  the  numerous  evenings  spent  in  the 
cellar.  Anyway  she  is  an  example  of  the  German  char- 
acter in  its  most  unpleasant  aspect. 

But  even  in  our  billet  the  housemaid,  Clara,  shows  how 
impossible  it  is  to  generalise  about  the  Germans.  Clara, 
a  great  strapping  wench  twenty-three  years  old,  is  as 
amiable  and  as  good-tempered  as  Gertrude  is  the  reverse. 
Friendly  and  pleasant,  her  beaming  face  puts  a  smile  on 
the  morning.  No  trouble  is  too  great  for  her.  First-rate 
at  her  work — she  never  stops  all  day — she  is  at  any  time 
prepared  to  do  all  manner  of  extraneous  jobs  for  me 
quite  outside  her  duties.  A  girl  of  better  disposition  I 
have  never  come  across,  simple  and  sincere.  Clara  has 
just  become  engaged  to  a  carpenter,  and  naturally  the 


BILLETS  73 

household  has  been  in  a  state  of  sympathetic  flutter  over 
this  affair  of  the  heart.  Clara  has  confided  to  me  many 
of  her  doubts  and  fears  on  the  subject  of  matrimony. 
Apparently  her  own  parents  were  not  a  united  couple,  a 
fact  which  gave  her  pause.  However,  her  sister  had 
made  a  happy  marriage,  and  the  numerous  perfections  of 
Hermann  at  last  won  the  day. 

The  ceremony  of  being  "verlobt"  was  carried  out  re- 
cently at  Essen — the  home  of  the  married  sister.  One 
wedding  day  is  enough  for  most  people.  Not  so  the  Ger- 
man, who  manages  to  wring  two  ceremonies  out  of  the 
event.  The  wedding  day  is  preceded  by  a  family  gather- 
ing, when  the  couple  are  formally  betrothed.  The  wed- 
ding ring  is  solemnly  placed  on  the  left  hand,  to  be  worn 
there  throughout  the  engagement,  till  on  marriage  it  is 
transferred  to  the  right  hand.  To  break  off  an  engage- 
ment once  "verlobt"  is  almost  as  disgraceful  as  a  divorce. 
Clara  must  have  looked  like  a  rainbow  on  this  great 
occasion,  judging  by  the  description  she  gave  me  of  the 
various  colours  in  her  hat  and  gown.  In  thoroughly 
German  fashion,  food  figured  prominently  in  her  account 
of  this  wonderful  day.  I  suspect  that  a  wish  to  get  two 
copious  meals  instead  of  one  out  of  a  marriage  lies  at  the 
root  of  the  betrothal  customs.  "Wir  haben  so  gut  geges- 
sen  und  getrunken,"  she  said  with  a  sigh  of  happy 
recollection. 

Prices  are  too  high,  household  effects  too  costly  to 
admit  of  immediate  matrimony,  a  fact  for  which  Madame 
is  very  thankful.  Madame  thoroughly  appreciates 
Clara's  good  qualities,  and  views  the  worthy  Hermann 
with  nothing  but  hostility.  If  only  some  brave  man 
would  carry  off  Gertrude !    But  there  are  limits  to  human 


74  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

courage,  and  Gertrude's  face  is  a  barrier  to  adventures  of 
the  heart  on  the  part  of  the  stoutest  would-be  Brautigam. 

When  Hving  in  a  German  household  it  is  very  necessary 
to  lay  down  quite  firm  and  definite  rules  as  to  your  rela- 
tions with  the  family.  It  is  unfortunately  true  that  the 
average  German  would  misunderstand  kindness  and  con- 
sideration, unless  it  is  also  made  perfectly  clear  that 
certain  things  must  be  done  and  one  will  tolerate  no 
nonsense.  A  great  deal  of  "trying  on"  takes  place  in 
various  billets,  and  it  never  does  to  give  way.  Frontiers 
should  be  marked  out  with  exactness,  and  adhered  to  no 
less  exactly.  A  race  trained  to  obedience,  the  Germans 
understand  an  order  when  they  would  take  advantage  of 
a  hesitating  request.  It  is  necessary  in  self-defence  to 
accept  their  mentality  in  this  respect.  The  British  point 
of  scruple  arises  in  putting  forward  nothing  that  is  unfair 
or  unjust.  On  this  basis  it  is  possible  to  live  on  pleasant 
terms  with  the  German  occupiers.  People's  billeting  ex- 
periences vary,  of  course,  considerably.  In  many  cases 
they  are  the  reflection  of  their  own  temperament.  Some 
people  adapt  themselves  to  the  new  conditions  and  handle 
them  sensibly.  Others  are  always  in  trouble  and  are  full 
of  grievances  about  the  incivility  of  their  Fraus. 

The  Germans  for  whom  I  have  the  least  sympathy  in 
billeting  matters  are  the  owners  of  the  really  large  houses. 
Very  few  members  of  the  former  governing  class  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Occupied  Area,  but  the  few  who  remain  are 
disagreeable  people.  The  working-classes  speak  bitterly 
of  their  selfishness  during  the  war  and  class  arrogance 
under  the  old  regime.  These  are  the  people  who  fostered 
and  fomented  all  that  was  arrogant  and  offensive  in 
latter-day   German   policy,   and   it   is   entirely   just  and 


BILLETS  75 

seemly  that  the  British  Army  should  enjoy  the  comforts 
of  their  luxurious  mansions.  In  an  encounter  of  which 
I  heard  between  a  batman  and  a  German  baroness  lies 
the  whole  philosophy  of  the  Occupation.  The  baroness 
was  discovered  by  the  officer's  wife  billeted  in  her  house 
speechless  with  rage.  Never  in  her  life,  so  she  declared, 
had  she  been  so  insulted.  Inquiries  were  made — batmen 
and  English  servants  are  not  allowed  to  be  rude  to  Ger- 
man householders.  It  then  transpired  that  the  lady,  who 
after  the  manner  of  German  Fraus  was  in  the  habit  of 
haunting  her  basement  at  odd  hours,  found  one  after- 
noon two  English  soldiers  belonging  to  the  household 
sliding  on  the  back  stairs  and  whistling.  The  lady  spoke 
sharply  and  told  them  that  whistling  and  sliding  on  the 
banisters  were  "verboten."  Whereupon  Thomas  Atkins, 
genial  and  undefeated,  his  hand  on  the  stair  rail,  turned 
to  the  angry  baroness  and  remarked  pleasantly,  "Aye, 
missus,  but  yer  should  have  won  the  war,  and  then  yer 
could  have  come  and  slid  down  our  back  stairs  and 
whistled." 


CHAPTER  VI 
CHRISTMAS  IN  COLOGNE 
Xmas  1 9 19 

Christmas-time  in  Germany!  I  am  haunted  by  the 
recollection  of  the  beautiful  passage  in  Mr.  Clutton 
Brock's  Thoughts  on  the  War,  a  book  which  many  of  us 
read  when  no  improbability  seemed  greater  than  that  of 
spending  Christmas  in  Cologne  in  the  wake  of  a  British 
Army  of  Occupation :  "Forget  for  a  moment  the  war 
and  wasted  Belgium  and  the  ruins  of  Rheims  Cathedral, 
and  think  of  Germany  and  all  that  she  means  to  the  mind 
among  the  nations  of  Europe.  She  means  cradle  songs 
and  fairy  stories  and  Christmas  in  old  moonlit  towns, 
and  a  queer,  simple  tenderness  always  childish  and  musi- 
cal with  philosophers  who  could  forget  the  world  in 
thought  like  children  that  play,  and  musicians  who  could 
laugh  suddenly  like  children  through  all  their  profundities 
of  sound." 

In  this  same  essay  Mr.  Clutton  Brock  goes  on  to  say 
how  these  Germans  of  the  past  were  always  spoken  of  as 
"the  good  Germans,"  and  the  world  admired  their  inno- 
cence and  imposed  upon  it.  Finally  they  grew  tired  of 
being  imposed  upon,  so  they  determined  to  put  off  their 
childishness  and  take  their  place  among  the  strong  nations 
of  the  world.  What  the  consequences  of  that  change  of 
attitude  have  been  we  all  know  too  well.  The  good  Ger- 
mans— the  simple  people  who  were  bullied  by  their  neigh- 

76 


CHRISTMAS  IN  COLOGNE  77 

bours  till  they  made  up  their  minds  to  be  clever  and 
worldly!  If  this  be  the  right  reading  of  history,  what 
an  immeasurable  weight  is  added  to  the  whole  tragedy 
of  the  war. 

It  is  to  that  older,  more  homely  Germany  one's  thoughts 
turn  at  Christmastide.  Our  Christmas  customs  are  largely 
German  in  origin.  Christmas  trees  and  candles,  Santa 
Claus  with  his  bag  of  gifts — all  these  things  are  in  full 
swing  here.  Which  of  us  as  a  child  has  not  thrilled  over 
Grimm's  Fairy  Tales f  And  German  toys!  Not  for  a 
moment  would  patriotism  allow  us  to  confess  it,  but  at 
heart  we  know  we  have  missed,  and  continue  to  miss  very 
badly,  the  tin  soldiers  and  other  varied  delights  which  in 
old  days  reached  us  from  the  Fatherland.  Cologne  before 
Christmas  was  placarded  by  a  German  peace  society,  beg- 
ging parents  not  to  rouse  military  instincts  in  their  chil- 
dren by  giving  them  tin  soldiers.  The  notice  was  a 
curious  illustration  of  the  many  varied  opinions  surging 
upwards  in  Germany  to-day,  none  of  which  would  have 
dared  to  find  expression  under  the  old  regime.  But  Ger- 
many has  certainly  not  disowned  its  militarism  up  to  the 
point  of  perfection  aimed  at  by  the  enthusiasts  of  the 
peace  society  in  question.  The  Cologne  community  as  a 
whole  made  merry  over  this  appeal,  and  certainly  the 
sale  of  tin  soldiers  in  the  shops  did  not  seem  to  be  affected 
by  it.  Never  were  toy  shops  so  enchanting  and  fascinat- 
ing as  those  of  the  Hohe  Strasse  and  the  Breite  Strasse 
in  their  Christmas  finery.  I  flattened  my  nose  forlornly 
against  the  plate-glass  windows,  and  mourned  over  the 
fact  that  the  total  of  summers  and  winters  standing  to 
my  account  removed  these  delights  beyond  my  reach. 
Troops  of  excited  children  flocked  in  and  round  the  shops. 


78  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

but  for  man)'  a  German  child  the  matter  ended  there. 
Whatever  benefits  we  English  may  gain  by  a  low  ex- 
change, the  price  of  toys  in  marks  this  winter  makes  them 
prohibitive  to  all  except  the  well-to-do  and  the 
"Schiebers,"  the  expressive  name  for  profiteers. 

The  German  child  normally  is  in  a  stronger  position 
about  Christmas  than  the  English  child,  for  in  this  coun- 
try there  are  two  great  days  for  presents  and  festivities. 
Early  in  December  arrives  St,  Nicholas,  bringing  with 
him  cakes  and  nuts  and  sweets.  His  visits  are  paid,  of 
course,  during  the  night,  and  shoes  and  stockings  are, 
with  the  hopefulness  of  youth,  left  by  the  bedside  for 
him  to  fill.  On  Christmas  Day  is  the  Christmas  tree 
with  further  cakes  and  presents  and  delights.  German 
brutality  is  always  difficult  to  understand  in  view  of  the 
position  held  by  the  children  and  the  obvious  wealth  of 
care  and  affection  lavished  on  them.  For  in  even  greater 
measure  than  in  England  is  Christmas  the  children's  feast. 
During  the  holiday  season  the  affairs  of  their  elders  are 
temporarily  suspended,  while  the  latter  devote  themselves 
to  a  round  of  juvenile  gaiety  and  amusement.  Children's 
plays  appear  at  the  theatre,  even  the  Opera  House  aban- 
dons Mozart  and  Wagner  and  gives  special  performances 
of  Hansel  und  Gretcl  for  the  benefit  of  juvenile  audiences. 

I  have  no  recollection  of  Germany  more  pleasant  than 
that  of  the  Opera  House  filled  in  Christmas  week  with  a 
crowd  of  excited  children  come  to  listen  to  Humperdinck's 
delightful  play.  The  white  frocks  filled  stalls  and  boxes 
like  petals  of  a  great  bouquet.  Large  bows  of  ribbon  on 
the  fair  heads  fluttered  like  banners  in  a  breeze  as  the 
adventures  of  Hansel  and  Gretel  and  the  witch  were 
followed  with  shrieks  of  excitement.    On  one  side  of  me 


CHRISTMAS  IN  COLOGNE  79 

sat  a  little  English  girl,  holding  on  tight  to  her  chair  so 
as  not  to  spring  out  of  it  altogether ;  on  the  other  a  little 
German  girl,  with  a  hand  thrust  firmly  into  her  mouth 
in  order  to  secure  some  measure  of  silence.  But  as  the 
adventures  of  the  play  deepened,  the  situation  proved  too 
much  for  my  small  neighbour,  who  flung  herself  finally 
with  cries  of  excitement  into  her  mother's  arms.  I  envied 
the  actors  their  audience.  It  must  have  been  a  joy  to  play 
in  an  atmosphere  of  such  entire  appreciation.  When  the 
culminating  moment  is  reached,  and  clever  Hansel  pops 
the  wicked  witch  into  the  oven  destined  for  the  children, 
squeals  of  joy  broke  out  all  over  the  theatre :  squeals  only 
to  be  renewed  in  intensity  when  the  oven  door  was  re- 
opened and  the  witch  brought  out  cooked  and  browned  in 
the  shape  of  an  enormous  gingerbread.  Let  us  be  thank- 
ful for  the  unconsciousness  of  childhood,  keeping  alive 
in  the  world  great  treasures  of  joy  and  laughter,  when 
the  grim  realities  of  post-war  Europe  oppress  our  souls. 
But  if  the  toy  shops  and  the  theatres  and  the  excite- 
ment of  the  children  leave  nothing  to  be  desired,  the 
weather  has  refused  to  play.  Never  can  I  remember  so 
damp  and  dripping  and  sodden  a  Christmas.  Our  cold 
snap  came  in  November.  Then  for  a  brief  space  we  had 
frosts  and  red  sunsets :  those  pre-Christmas  sunsets  when 
the  German  mother  with  a  quaint  materialism  tells  her 
children  that  "das  Christ-kind  biickt" — the  Christ  Child 
is  baking  cakes  for  Christmas.  But  there  was  little  bak- 
ing this  year  on  the  part  of  the  Christ  Child.  Fog  and 
rain  enveloped  Cologne  for  days  beforehand  in  a  damp 
and  dripping  mantle.  In  a  foreign  land  I  found  myself 
missing  the  hundred  and  one  small  duties  which  at  home 
have  to  be  carried  out  at  Christmas.     It  is  dull  work 


ir 


80  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

ordering  your  presents  by  post.    Even  so  it  was  all  doife, 
and  unless  I  went  out  in  the  wet  and  looked  at  the  toy 
shops  there  was  nothing  to  show  Christmas  was  at  hand. 
Finally  I  was  struck  by  a  bright  idea.    Why  shouldn't  we 
have  a  Christmas  tree  ?    Yes,  and  presents  for  the  house- 
hold, including  the  cross  cook.     Peace  has  been  signed, 
and  it  is  the  season  of  peace  and  goodwill:  so  why  not? 
First  of  all  I  sounded  Maria — this  was  before  the  days 
of  the  good-tempered  Clara.     Why  shouldn't  we  have  a 
Christmas  tree — every  other  house  in  the  street  was  get- 
ting ready  for  one  ?    Maria's  eyes  glistened :  she  had  had 
no  Christmas  tree  since  the  war,  to  see  one  again  would 
be  a  joy  indeed.     Yes,  most  certainly  she  would  under- 
take to  buy  a  suitable  tree  if  I  wanted  one.     My  next 
business  was  to  sound  our  Frau.     She  too  lent  a  favour- 
able ear  to  my  proposal.    No,  they  had  had  no  Christmas 
tree  since  the  war,  but  it  would  be  pleasant  to  begin  again. 
She  had  plenty  of  decorations  and  candle-holders  and 
would  be  glad  to  lend  them  to  me.    Madame  was  as  good 
as  her  word,  and  produced  boxes  of  crystal  balls  and 
coloured  tinsels  and  a  solid  wood  block  into  which  the  tree 
could  be  fixed.    Throughout  a  wet  and  gloomy  afternoon 
Maria  and  I  saw  to  the  decorations,  and  on  Christmas 
Eve  the  tree  was  lit  up  and  our  mixed  household  held  a 
short  and  curious  gathering  in  the  dining-room. 

Whatever  faults  may  be  urged  against  the  Germans, 
they  are  certainly  not  lacking  in  a  considerable  measure 
of  personal  dignity.  The  attitude  of  our  Frau  and  her 
maids  was  everything  that  was  correct.  They  received 
their  small  gifts  with  pleasure  and  praised  the  English 
Christmas  cake,  slices  of  which  were  handed  round.  We 
exchanged  greetings  and  good  wishes  for  Christmas  and 


CHRISTMAS  IN  COLOGNE  81 

the  coming  year,  and  the  tree  with  its  candles  and  tinsel 
bravery  was  an  object  of  much  admiration.  But  could 
the  inner  thoughts  of  any  one  of  us  in  the  room  have  been 
revealed,  how  strange  and  painful  must  the  texture  have 
proved ! 

Of  one  thing  I  am  certain:  the  surface  of  courtesy 
and  amenity  between  us  and  our  foes  has  to  be  restored 
little  by  little  if  we  are  aiming  at  a  future,  however  dis- 
tant, purged  of  hatred  and  revenge.  The  first  tentative 
experiments  can  only  be  made  between  individuals  whose 
circumstances  have  flung  them,  like  our  Madame  and  our- 
selves, into  a  personal  relationship  which  is  not  unfriendly. 
As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  it  is  easy  to  hate  the  abstraction 
called  Germany,  but  for  individual  Germans  one  feels 
either  like,  dislike,  or  indifference  the  same  as  for  other 
people.  But  the  growth  of  a  better  understanding  is  likely 
to  be  slow  and  laborious.  Even  when  individuals  as 
individuals  do  not  hate  each  other,  events  have  dug  a 
chasm  between  the  two  nations.  The  Germans  are  so 
curiously  insensitive,  it  is  always  difficult  to  realise  if 
they  feel  things  as  we  should  feel  them  ourselves.  But 
the  three  German  women  who  had  had  no  Christmas 
tree  since  the  war  and  now  were  looking  at  a  Christmas 
tree  provided  by  an  English  woman — what  did  the  situa- 
tion mean  for  them?  Though  obviously  pleased  with 
their  gifts  and  the  little  ceremony,  the  khaki  uniforms  in 
the  room  spoke  of  conquest,  defeat,  overthrow.  And  for 
us  too  there  came  a  flood  of  memories,  memories  of 
friends  lost,  of  young  lives  cut  down  in  their  prime,  of 
homes  in  England  left  stricken  and  empty  this  Christmas- 
tide  because  the  monstrous  ambitions  of  Germany's  rulers 
would  have  it  so.    And  even  as  we  talked  and  exchanged 


82  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  old  Christmas  messages  of  peace  and  drank  each 
other's  health,  the  room  and  the  tree  and  the  candles  all 
seemed  to  vanish,  and  in  their  place  I  saw  the  grey  deso- 
lation and  havoc  of  Flanders,  lines  of  dim  figures  advanc- 
ing to  attack,  rows  of  graves,  silent,  mournful. 

But  if  these  things  are  not  to  have  their  repetition  in  a 
future  still  more  awful  than  the  present  we  have  known, 
somehow,  some  way,  men  must  learn  the  message  of 
Christmas,  hard  though  it  be  in  our  distracted  world, 
"Peace  on  earth,  goodwill  towards  men."  But  for  once 
in  a  way  the  Revised  Version  has  stepped  in  with  a 
deeper,  more  beautiful  meaning  than  that  of  the  old 
familiar  words,  "Peace  on  earth  to  men  of  good  will." 
Peace  is  not  a  casual  condition.  It  does  not  arise  auto- 
matically when  the  roar  of  cannon  dies  away.  It  implies 
effort,  sacrifice,  and  consistent  spiritual  purpose.  Treaties 
and  protocols  cannot  secure  it;  without  goodwill  peace  is 
stillborn.  We  went  through  the  trials  of  the  war  with  a 
high  heart  and  a  great  endurance.  Are  our  hearts  high 
enough  for  the  final  adventure  of  goodwill? 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  BERGISCHE  LAND 

One  of  the  real  advantages  of  life  in  Cologne  is  the 
charm  of  the  surrounding  neighbourhood.  Not  that  the 
neighbourhood  to  which  I  refer  is  near  at  hand  or  very 
accessible  except  by  train  or  by  motor  car.  Cologne  lies 
in  the  centre  of  a  great  fertile  plain,  through  which  the 
Rhine  flows  nobly  in  that  last  stage  of  its  career  before 
entering  the  mud  flats  of  Holland.  At  a  distance  varying 
from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  the  plain  east  and  west  is  bounded 
by  a  chain  of  low  hills  broken  up,  especially  on  the  eastern 
side,  by  delicious  valleys.  Here  are  woods  and  trout 
streams,  meadows  and  flowers.  No  district  with  which 
I  am  acquainted  is  more  adapted  to  walks,  delightful  with- 
out being  arduous,  or  to  longer  expeditions  by  motor. 
These  low  hills  commanding  the  plain  abound  in  views  of 
extraordinary  vastness  and  extent.  The  hills  are  so 
easily  climbed !  Yet  from  their  summits  the  wanderer 
has  the  impression  that  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  lie 
spread  at  his  feet.  For  very  little  real  exertion,  therefore, 
he  has  the  impression  of  having  mastered  some  Alpine 
peak — an  observation  for  which  I  hope  I  may  be  pardoned 
by  any  member  of  the  Alpine  Club. 

From  the  eastern  ridge,  known  as  the  Bergische  Land, 
the  sunset  view  is  one  of  special  beauty.  The  cultivated 
slopes  and  pasture  lands  fall  away  gently  to  the  plain 
below,  in  spring  fresh  with  the  vivid  green  of  young  grass 

83 


84  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

or  corn,  in  autumn  rich  with  harvest  gold.  In  the  dis- 
tance, chimneys  stretching  north  and  south  reveal  the 
course  of  the  Rhine,  whose  waters  are  hidden  from  view. 
Far  away  to  the  left  is  the  outline  of  the  Siebengebirge 
mounting  guard  over  Bonn  and  the  entrance  to  the  ro- 
mantic reach  of  the  stream  known  as  the  Rheingau. 
Above  the  chimneys  and  the  remote  huddle  of  houses  and 
factories,  the  twin  spires  of  Cologne  Cathedral,  their 
clumsiness  softened  by  distance,  raise  their  symbol  of 
man's  hope  and  aspiration  to  heaven. 

The  low  range  lying  on  the  west  side  of  Cologne  known 
as  the  Vorgebirge  is  less  attractive  than  the  Bergische 
Land  to  the  east.  Industry  preponderates  on  this  side,  for 
the  Vorgebirge  is  of  special  importance  owing  to  the 
famous  black  coal  extracted  from  the  hills.  Here  is  dug, 
without  any  apparatus  of  shafts  or  sinking,  a  special 
brown  deposit  which,  pressed  and  pounded,  turns  into 
the  briquettes  on  which  Cologne  relies  for  its  light  and 
heat.  The  presence  in  the  near  neighbourhood  of  this 
ample  supply  of  cheap  fuel  has  been  a  factor  of  the  utmost 
importance  in  the  commercial  development  of  Cologne, 
We  of  the  Occupation  have  learnt  to  bless  the  black 
briquettes,  which  feed  the  central  heating  in  winter  and 
give  us  abundant  electric  light  throughout  the  year. 

How  well  these  people  manage  their  industrialism! 
That  is  a  reflection  borne  in  upon  me  time  and  again  in 
the  Rhineland.  Prussianism,  however  bad  for  the  soul, 
was  very  efficient  in  the  organisation  of  daily  life.  Wages 
in  Germany  before  the  war  were  not  high;  the  liberty 
and  rights  of  the  worker  were  restricted  in  many  direc- 
tions. On  the  other  hand,  no  country  in  the  world  could 
approach   Germany   in   the   excellence   of   its   municipal 


THE  BERGISCHE  LAND  85 

organisation  and  the  many  advantages  of  the  population 
as  regards  pubhc  services.  German  authorities  excelled 
in  arrangements  concerned  with  health,  communication, 
and  amusement.  Town  planning  and  building  operations 
were  controlled ;  cities  were  laid  out  and  houses  built  on 
lines  destined  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. The  speculative  builder  was  not  allowed  to  wax 
fat  at  the  expense  of  his  neighbours.  Electric  light  is 
supplied  even  in  small  villages,  and  an  admirable  service 
of  trams  and  light  railways  brings  the  amenities  of  life 
within  reach  of  the  poorest. 

Amusements  are  dealt  with  in  a  rational  spirit,  which 
makes  for  happiness  and  self-respect.  Cafes,  beer  gar- 
dens with  concert  rooms  attached,  are  decent  places,  where 
a  man  does  not  drink  furtively  but  takes  his  glass  of 
wine  or  beer  in  the  company  of  his  family.  Not  only 
have  large  towns  a  first-rate  opera  house  and  theatre,  but 
good  music  and  good  drama  can  be  heard  in  quite  small 
places.  Industry  in  particular  has  been  brought  to  heel. 
Factory  chimneys  are  not  allowed  to  pollute  a  district  at 
will  or  to  poison  the  air  with  noxious  fumes.  A  modern 
school  of  painters  has  taught  us  to  see  qualities  of  strength 
and  even  beauty  in  certain  aspects  of  industry.  But  those 
qualities  cannot  be  obvious  to  the  working-class  wife  who 
has  to  struggle  with  the  intolerable  grime  and  dirt  pro- 
duced. The  strength  of  a  nation  is  rooted  in  the  homes 
of  a  nation,  and  there  are  many  districts  in  England  where 
no  man  can  be  proud  of  his  home.  Men  and  women 
whose  lot  in  life  is  cast  in  the  Black  Country,  or  who  are 
forced  to  dwell  in  the  long,  mean  street  of  dirty  houses 
which  extends  from  Nottingham  to  Leeds,  might  well 


86  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

envy  the  better  conditions  of  existence  which  obtain  in 
Germany. 

I  have  never  seen  any  information  as  to  the  stages  of 
the  Industrial  Revolution  in  Germany.  Naturally  it  came 
at  a  later  date  than  our  own  and  was  able  to  benefit  by 
our  mistakes.  But  to  what  influence  does  it  owe  a  char- 
acter so  different  ?  Here  in  the  lower  Rhineland  there  are 
big  industrial  towns  and  great  factories.  These  places 
are  not  beautiful,  but  they  lack  the  overpowering  dirt  and 
ugliness  of  the  manufacturing  districts  of  Lancashire 
and  Yorkshire.  All  along  the  lower  Rhine  one  factory 
succeeds  another,  but  they  consume  their  own  smoke  and 
fumes  and  are  not  allowed  to  tyrannise  over  the  district. 
Diisseldorf  even  more  than  Cologne  is  a  great  manufac- 
turing centre,  and  among  other  industries  has  large  ma- 
chine and  puddling  works  in  its  suburbs.  But  the  public 
gardens  of  the  town,  which  are  of  great  extent  and 
beauty,  might  be  a  hundred  miles  removed  from  a  fac- 
tory. Leverkusen,  the  great  dye  works  near  Cologne,  has 
the  appearance  of  a  model  village.  It  is  all  to  the  credit 
of  Germany  that  she  has  not  allowed  herself  to  be  ob- 
sessed by  that  spirit  of  helpless  fatalism  which  has  de- 
scended on  too  many  of  the  manufacturing  districts  and 
towns  in  England.  Men  and  women's  lives  are  spent 
amid  this  grime,  to  the  detriment  of  soul  as  well  as  body. 
It  is  a  valuable  object  lesson  to  learn  that,  granted  energy 
and  a  will  to  be  clean,  some  of  the  drawbacks  of  an  ugly 
industrialism  can  be  avoided  for  the  workers. 

Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  have  one  feature  in  common 
with  the  German  industrial  centres  on  the  lower  Rhine. 
Both  have  their  own  beautiful  hinterland.  The  German 
hinterland  in  question  has  nothing  so  grand  and  so  aus- 


THE  BERGISCHE  LAND  87 

tere  to  show  as  the  great  heather-clad  moors  and  rugged 
dales  of  Yorkshire  and  Derbyshire.  But  withal  the  rural 
districts  of  this  smiling  Bergische  Land,  with  its  wooded 
valleys  and  running  streams  and  black  and  white  houses 
buried  deep  among  orchards,  lie,  so  it  seems,  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  factories  and  workshops.  Full  of  charm 
are  these  little  valleys,  divided  one  from  another  by  nar- 
row watersheds.  All  of  a  family,  yet  each  possesses  its 
own  features  and  has  the  impress  of  its  own  personality. 
A  trout  stream  almost  invariably  meanders  along  the 
valley,  sometimes  finding  its  way  through  meadows  of 
long  lush  grass,  Alpine  in  its  greenness,  sometimes  flowing 
among  overhanging  woods  where  the  murmur  of  the 
waters  mingles  with  the  rustling  of  the  leaves  or  the 
deeper,  more  melancholy  note  of  the  fir  boughs.  It  is  a 
smiling,  almost  park-like  land,  richly  cultivated  and  well 
populated.  There  are  no  wild  or  desert  places.  Every- 
thing perhaps  is  a  trifle  sophisticated.  Many  of  the  black 
and  white  cottages,  gabled  and  romantic,  might  have 
stepped  off  the  light-comedy  stage.  Here  and  there  the 
moated  tower  of  some  ruined  Burg  or  an  eighteenth- 
century  country  house  set  back  in  a  walled  garden  strikes 
the  same  note.  This  is  not  Nature  in  her  strength  and 
power,  but  Nature  laughing,  gay,  forthcoming,  a  sylvan 
goddess  of  woods  and  streams  and  meadows.  "Intime" 
is  the  word  which  best  expresses  her  charm.  Last,  but 
not  least.  Nature  in  the  Bergische  Land  is  a  goddess  of 
the  fruits  of  the  earth. 

Spring  is  a  season  of  wonder  and  beauty  in  the  Rhine- 
land.  The  villages  disappear  in  a  cloud  of  pink  and 
white  blossom.  White  and  pink  too  are  the  country  roads 
lined   with   fruit   trees.      Beech   trees   abound;   and  has 


88  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

Nature  in  her  great  spectacle  of  the  changing  year  any 
sight  more  beautiful  than  the  first  shy  unfolding  of  the 
young  beech  leaves?  A  little  later  come  the  chestnuts, 
stately  and  self-important,  carrying  their  white  candles 
on  broad  green  candlesticks  and  lighting  up  the  country- 
side with  so  brave  an  illumination.  Then  follows  the 
deep-red  blossom  of  the  thorn,  mingled  with  the  purple 
and  yellow  of  lilac  and  laburnum.  Under  foot  the  emer- 
ald green  of  the  meadows  is  flecked  yellow  with  cowslips. 
Yellow  too  are  the  great  fields  of  mustard,  which  in  turn 
yield  place  to  carmine  stretches  of  clover.  It  is  a  riot  of 
colour  and  beauty  throughout  the  Bergische  Land.  The 
high  midsummer  pomps  find  the  cottage  gardens  a  mass 
of  roses  and  other  homely  flowers.  Finally  the  white 
promise  of  spring  gives  way  to  the  golden  fulfilment  of 
autumn.  The  orchards  bend  low  under  the  weight  of 
pear  and  apple  and  plum.  And  winter  is  no  harsh  thing 
in  the  valleys,  where  the  delicate  tracery  of  the  leafless 
woods,  detached  against  a  frosty  sky,  has  a  charm  as 
great  as  the  young  foliage  of  spring. 

Though  so  little  removed  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
industry,  there  is  practically  neither  grime  nor  contami- 
nation about  the  Bergische  Land.  The  German  house- 
wife, as  I  have  said,  is  happily  spared  that  hand-to-hand 
struggle  with  dirt  which  embitters  existence  for  many  an 
English  working  woman.  The  decentralisation  of  in- 
dustry is  much  practised  in  Germany,  and  frequently 
isolated  factories  will  be  found  in  country  surroundings 
which  give  employment  to  the  immediate  neighbourhood. 
It  is  perhaps  for  this  reason  that  the  game  is  not  a  hope- 
less one,  that  the  extraordinary  cleanliness  of  the  German 
village  is  due.     It  is  quite  an  experience  to  walk  or  motor 


THE  BERGISCHE  LAND  89 

through  the  villages  on  a  Saturday  evening  when  cleaning 
operations  are  in  full  swing.  The  whole  population  is 
out  in  the  street  tidying  up.  The  oldest  and  the  youngest 
inhabitant  alike  are  hard  at  work  with  buckets  and  besoms. 
I  am  now  able  to  appreciate  why  the  Besom  Binder  always 
figures  so  largely  in  German  fairy  tales.  As  soon  as  a 
child  can  stagger  it  is  provided  with  a  besom  three  times 
the  size  of  itself  and  turned  out  to  sweep.  Tiny  children 
flourishing  brooms  will  remain  one  of  my  permanent 
impressions  of  Germany. 

Not  only  the  doorstep  of  each  individual  house  and  the 
strip  of  pavement  in  front  of  the  door,  but  the  street  itself 
is  cleaned  up  thoroughly  on  Saturday  night.  There  are 
rinsings  and  scrubbings  and  washings  and  sweepings. 
The  midden  is  tidied  and  made  as  neat  and  trim  as  a 
haystack.  The  woodstack  is  similarly  squared,  the  blocks 
piled  with  mathematical  exactness  one  on  the  top  of  the 
other.  From  the  street  itself  every  vestige  of  dirt  and 
dust  is  removed.  You  are  almost  afraid  to  breathe  lest 
anything  should  be  disturbed.  As  for  a  motor  car,  its 
intrusion  on  the  scene  is  little  short  of  a  sacrilege.  Until 
dusk  and  after,  the  Saturday  cleaning  lasts.  Then  on 
Sunday  the  village  in  its  best  clothes  sits  about  at  ease 
on  doorsteps  and  contemplates  the  fruits  of  its  labours. 

Sunday  in  this  Catholic  land  is  a  true  feast  day.  It  is 
impossible  not  to  admire  the  simple,  wholesome  way  in 
which  the  people,  town  and  country  alike,  take  their  pleas- 
ures. Churches  are  crowded  in  the  morning,  and  it  is 
clear  that  the  Catholic  hierarchy  keeps  in  very  close  touch 
with  its  flock.  But  religious  festivals,  which  are  frequent, 
have  a  pleasant  social  aspect  and  the  population  from 
oldest  to  youngest  clearly  enjoy  them.     Sometimes  in  the 


90  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

valleys  of  the  Bergische  Land  you  may  meet  a  long  pro- 
cession going  on  pilgrimage  to  a  neighbouring  shrine. 
The  sound  of  chanting  and  music  is  borne  on  the  wind  as 
the  company  wind  up  the  hillside.  It  is  like  a  scene  in  a 
play  as  you  watch  the  distant  view  of  banners  and  cruci- 
fixes and  white-robed  acolytes.  Especially  attractive  are 
the  children's  processions  held  on  White  Sunday — the 
Sunday  following  Easter — when  the  ceremony  of  first 
communion  takes  place.  No  steps  are  omitted  to  make 
the  occasion  impressive.  Every  little  child  in  Cologne 
down  to  the  poorest  wears  a  white  frock  and  a  wreath 
of  white  roses.  They  come  with  their  parents  in  large 
numbers  during  the  morning  to  say  a  prayer  in  the  cathe- 
dral— tiny  children,  so  they  seem,  to  be  struggling  with 
the  great  mysteries  of  faith.  We  passed  a  small  hillside 
church  in  the  Bergische  Land  on  the  afternoon  of  White 
Sunday  at  the  moment  when  a  procession  of  children  was 
coming  out.  It  was  a  pretty  sight :  the  fair  heads  crowned 
with  flowers  and  every  child  carrying  a  gold-and-white 
lily  in  its  hand;  fond  and  anxious  parents  shepherding 
their  lambs,  and  provided  with  cloaks  and  umbrellas  in 
the  event  of  rain. 

These  simple  ceremonies  give  warmth  and  character  to 
the  countryside,  but  quite  apart  from  religious  exercises 
of  the  nature  I  have  described,  the  whole  of  Cologne 
pours  into  the  Bergische  Land  in  the  course  of  a  fine 
Sunday  afternoon.  Various  light  railways  issue  from 
the  city  and,  running  across  the  plain,  penetrate  the  val- 
leys at  various  points.  From  the  Dom  Platz  at  Cologne 
you  may,  if  fired  by  the  spirit  of  adventure,  take  your 
choice  of  three  trams  to  the  Bergische  Land.  One  will 
carry  you  in   some   forty   minutes  to  the   Konigsforst, 


THE  BERGISCHE  LAND  91 

formerly  a  royal  forest  at  the  foot  of  the  hills;  another 
in  fifty  minutes  to  Bensberg,  a  charming  old  town  crowned 
by  an  eighteenth-century  castle  in  the  Palladian  style. 
The  castle  with  its  domes  has  dignity  and  character ;  it  is 
now  used  as  a  barracks  for  French  coloured  troops. 
From  the  tiny  acropolis  to  which  the  city  clings — in 
spring  half  smothered  by  the  white  and  pink  of  its  cherry 
and  plum  and  apple  orchards — is  the  finest  of  all  the 
views  over  the  plain.  Or  you  may  journey  for  an  hour 
northwards  along  the  Rhine,  passing  through  Miilheim — 
a  widely  scattered  district  of  factories — till  you  come  to 
the  pleasant  little  town  of  Berg  Gladbach.  Here  through 
a  third  gateway  you  may  enter  the  wooded  hills  and 
valleys  stretching  to  the  east. 

Only  there  will  be  certain  disadvantages  if  you  conduct 
these  explorations  on  the  Sabbath,  for  the  Boche  in  his 
best  clothes  is  of  the  same  mind,  and  the  trams  are 
crowded  to  a  point  of  suffocation  hard  to  endure  on  a  hot 
summer's  day.  But  all  the  same  the  experience  of  a 
Sunday  excursion  is  by  no  means  to  be  missed,  for  then 
you  see  the  life  of  the  people  as  it  is.  What  light-hearted, 
cheerful  crowds  they  are !  Families,  father,  mother,  and 
children,  out  for  the  day  together,  troops  of  young  people 
with  knapsacks  and  mandolines  tramping  for  miles 
through  the  woods,  singing  as  they  march,  and  as  often 
as  not  waving  their  hands  and  calling  out  "Good  day"  in 
English. 

The  group  instinct  of  the  German  is  very  noticeable 
in  his  holiday-making.  Picnic  parties  abound,  clatches 
of  children  in  the  care  of  nuns  and  priests;  more  pros- 
perous families  out  for  the  day  in  wonderful  chars-a- 
bancs   and   wagonettes   which   are   covered   with   green 


92  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

boughs  and  wreaths  of  Howers.  In  summer  it  is  a  point  of 
honour  for  picnic  parties  to  decorate  their  carriages  in  this 
way.  I  have  often  seen  horses  drawn  up  by  the  roadside  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  Konigsforst  or  Bensberg  while 
the  occupants  were  employed  in  cutting  down  branches 
and  converting  the  conveyance  into  a  green  bower. 

Village  feasts  are  common,  and  great  is  the  excitement 
w^hen  a  Kermess  is  held.  The  village  is  decorated  from 
end  to  end,  and  the  principal  street  is  lined  with  booths 
and  stalls.  Merry-go-rounds,  swing-boats,  shooting- 
galleries  cater  for  the  amusement  of  the  spectators,  while 
dancing  goes  on  in  the  inns  and  cafes.  May-day  festivities 
are  a  feature  of  the  countryside,  and  the  village  belle  may 
find  her  house  decorated  on  May  morning  with  a  may- 
bush  hung  on  a  tall  pole  by  an  admiring  suitor.  If  there 
is  competition  between  suitors,  more  than  one  bush  may 
be  hung  on  the  house,  and  the  various  lovers  under  such 
circumstances  endeavour  each  to  carry  his  bush  into  the 
air  at  a  higher  point  than  that  of  his  rival  or  rivals.  One 
fair  lady  this  last  year,  so  the  story  runs,  found  her  may- 
bush  decorated  with  a  miniature  figure  in  khaki  hanging 
head  downwards.  Intimacy  with  British  soldiers  was 
frowned  upon  in  the  locality,  and  the  village  applauded 
the  reproof  thus  administered  to  an  erring  beauty  who 
had  fraternised  wath  the  enemy. 

One-horse  cabs  of  archaic  design  survive  in  the  more 
remote  villages,  and  on  Sunday  afternoons  the  elderly 
local  plutocrats  may  be  seen  solemnly  taking  the  air  in  a 
conveyance  of  this  character.  The  aged  horse  does  his 
work  in  leisurely  fashion,  and  if  the  rate  of  progression 
is  slow,  the  dignity  of  the  passengers  loses  nothing  by  the 
fact.     No  village  is  really  remote,  owing  to  the  network 


THE  BERGISCHE  LAND  93 

of  light  railways  spread  about  the  country.  Yet  despite 
the  proximity  of  Cologne  and  the  constant  influx  from  the 
industrial  districts  on  the  Rhine,  the  village  people  appear 
to  retain  their  simple  habits  and  rustic  outlook  on  life. 
They  work  hard,  but  they  also  enjoy  life  thoroughly  in  a 
simple  way.  It  is  this  high  standard  of  simple  enjoyment 
among  town  and  country  people  alike  with  which  any 
traveller  must  be  struck  in  the  Rhineland,  a  better  state 
of  affairs  surely  than  the  enforced  gloom  of  many  an 
English  village,  where  feasts  and  dancing  would  be  re- 
garded as  a  desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  and  men  are 
forced  to  drink  and  loaf  for  lack  of  something  better  to 
do.  German  education  is  open  to  grave  indictment  as 
regards  the  spirit  and  temper  it  has  bred,  but  withal  the 
Germans  are  an  educated  people,  and  an  educated  people 
knows  how  to  employ  its  leisure. 

The  longer  you  live  in  the  Occupied  Area,  the  more 
sphinx-like  the  riddle  it  presents — the  riddle  of  reconcil- 
ing the  behaviour  of  these  decent,  self-respecting  people 
among  whom  you  find  yourself  with  the  actions  of  that 
collective  entity,  Germany,  who  figures  as  the  outcast  of 
Europe.  "It's  all  put  on,"  some  people  say.  But  this 
theory  of  sustained  hypocrisy  becomes  ridiculous  over  a 
period  of  many  months,  especially  when  you  have  mixed 
unknown  in  the  crowd  and  seen  the  Germans  at  work  and 
play  among  themselves.  Some  other  explanation  must 
be  found  for  a  psychology  so  bewildering.  Love  of  God's 
out-of-doors  is  always  a  redeeming  element  in  every 
human  being,  and  it  is  an  element  which  can  in  no  sense 
be  denied  to  our  late  enemies.  The  town  folk  enjoy  the 
beauties  of  the  country  in  a  quiet,  self-respecting  way 
with  a  minimum  of  rowdiness.     It  is  not  a  question  just 


94,  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

of  hanging  about  cafes  and  beerhouses.  These  places  on 
a  fine  day  are  crowded,  but  they  are  crowded  with  parties 
whose  dusty  boots  and  draggled  clothes  show  they  have 
been  far  afield.  The  children  carry  bunches  of  flowers 
or  green  boughs.  Sometimes  a  tired  little  one  rides  on 
a  father's  shoulder.  Knapsacks  are  produced,  from 
which  a  meal  sadly  frugal  in  quality  and  quantity  emerges. 
Coffee  or  beer  is  ordered,  and  the  party  sit  down  to  eat 
and  take  a  rest. 

As  at  every  other  point  in  German  life,  children  play 
a  great  part  in  these  excursions.  Hard  though  the  times, 
parents  pinch  and  save  to  see  the  children  are  well  and 
neatly  dressed.  A  white  frock  in  summer  for  the  girls — a 
bit  of  fur  round  the  collar  of  the  coat  in  winter  for  the 
boys — these  things  are  a  point  of  honour.  But  boots 
have  become  a  terrible  problem  to  most  working-class 
homes,  as  many  a  peasant  has  told  us.  It  is  certainly  not 
easy  to  associate  ideas  of  hunger  and  defeat  with  these 
respectable  Sunday  pleasure-seekers.  But  as  I  have  said 
before,  superficial  impressions  must  be  discounted  in 
Germany,  and  there  are  always  the  thin  legs  and  pasty 
faces  of  the  children  to  pull  you  up  short  if  you  try  to 
thrust  aside  ugly  memories  of  reports  and  statistics  and 
official  inquiries.' 

Often  as  I  have  sat  among  the  Sunday  crowds  in  the 
little  hill  towns  have  I  reflected  on  the  worldly  wisdom 
of  Machiavelli,  who,  like  Bismarck,  if  bad  was  long- 
headed. Machiavelli  took  the  view  that  you  must  either 
destroy  your  enemy  or  so  behave  that  you  may  turn  him 
into  a  good  neighbour.  One  thing  is  very  clear :  Germany 
•will  never  be  destroyed.  What  steps,  if  any,  are  we 
taking  to  turn  her  into  a  good  neighbour? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IN  SEARCH  OF  A  FISHING 

Long  ago  in  Winnipeg  I  remember  finding  two  young 
French  girls  in  the  immigrants'  reception  camp.  I  in- 
quired if  they  had  come  to  Canada  alone.  Whereat  the 
elder  with  a  fine  gesture  replied,  "O  non,  nous  ne  sommes 
pas  seules,  mais  mon  pere  est  alle  en  ville  acheter  des 
terres."  In  a  spirit  no  less  spacious  and  confident  we  set 
out  one  fine  afternoon  to  find  a  fishing.  The  Army  of 
Occupation  is  desperately  interested  in  fishing;  so,  like 
the  "terres"  of  which  my  Winnipeg  friend  spoke,  good 
fishing  is  hard  to  come  by.  Consequently  much  reticence 
on  the  subject  exists,  not  to  say  craft.  The  trout  streams 
of  the  Bergische  Land  or  in  the  Eiffel  are  set  in  ideal 
surroundings  from  the  fisherman's  point  of  view.  All 
that  is  lacking  on  many  occasions  is  the  trout.  The 
country  folk  are  fond  of  talking  of  miraculous  draughts 
of  fishes  which  existed  in  the  days  before  the  war.  The 
old  gentleman  who  hires  out  rods  by  the  day,  when  con- 
fronted with  an  empty  bag,  will  explain  elaborately  that 
this  unfortunate  result  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  British 
soldiers  have  caught  so  many  trout;  things  are  not  what 
they  used  to  be.  Personally  I  am  a  little  sceptical  about 
these  disclaimers  and  the  shifting  of  the  responsibility 
on  to  the  broad  back  of  the  Occupation.  Not  that  any 
feeling  exists  against  Thomas  Atkins  in  the  British  bridge- 
head.    It  is  pleasant  throughout  our  area  to  talk  to  the 

95 


96  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

villagers  and  to  hear  their  friendly  remarks  about  the 
troops.  Of  course  there  were  some  bad  characters  and 
some  bad  behaviour.  But  Atkins,  kindly  and  easygoing, 
has  been  a  missionary  of  reconciliation  in  many  a  German 
village.  Women  will  tell  you  that  they  helped  with  the 
house  and  were  kind  to  the  children ;  "any  English  person 
is  sure  of  a  welcome  in  a  village  where  English  soldiers 
have  been." 

So  despite  some  lapses  on  the  part  of  the  Army  over 
trout — there  are  stories  of  hand  grenades  used  in  streams 
— we  set  out  with  confidence  to  explore  some  valleys  on 
the  back  side  of  Sollingen,  where,  according  to  rumour, 
trout  of  large  size  and  merit  abounded  in  ideal  streams. 
Our  chauffeur  had  a  Germa-n  friend  who  knew  of  a  fish- 
ing. The  afternoon  was  before  us,  so  we  set  out  to  find 
the  friend. 

For  a  time  we  went  north  along  the  Rhine,  past  the 
great  factory  of  Leverkusen — famous  for  its  dyes,  and 
during  the  war  one  of  the  most  important  of  German 
munition  works.  Our  way  lay  amid  the  many  industrial 
establishments  which  mark  the  high  road  to  Diisseldorf, 
and  I  looked  with  envy  on  their  smokeless  chimneys. 
Beyond  Opladen  we  turned  off  to  the  right  and,  with  the 
bewildering  rapidity  which  happens  in  this  district,  found 
ourselves  in  a  few  minutes  in  a  purely  rural  valley.  Here 
were  orchards  and  open  meadows  and  black  and  white 
houses.  We  twisted  in  and  out  along  various  side-roads, 
till  the  road  itself  showed  signs  of  ending  in  a  secluded 
valley  where  a  mill-pond,  a  mill,  and  a  miller  came  into 
view.  The  milkr  was  the  chauffeur's  friend.  They 
shook  hands  solemnly  and  exchanged  greetings.  Then 
we  were  introduced — was  there  any  fishing  to  let?    He, 


IN  SEARCH  OF  A  FISHING  97 

the  chauffeur,  knew  from  previous  experience  that  the 
stream  was  well  thought  of.  The  miller  was  friendly  but 
could  give  us  little  help.  The  proprietor  was  just  dead, 
the  upper  stream  was  let,  there  were  no  trout  now  in  the 
lower  pond.  But  he  had  a  friend,  Herr  Hermann  Holl- 
weg,  who  owned  a  Bade-anstalt  in  a  neighbouring  village. 
Herr  Hollweg  most  certainly  would  put  us  in  the  way  of 
getting  a  fine  trout  stream. 

Back  again  we  went,  therefore,  to  hunt  up  the  Bade- 
anstalt  and  Herr  Hermann  Hollweg.  We  ran  him  to 
earth  without  much  difficulty — a  second  polite  and  cour- 
teous gentleman,  but  again  full  of  regrets  that  he  had  no 
fishing  to  let.  Herr  Hollweg  produced  a  large  map  of 
the  countryside.  At  Nagelsbaum  he  had  a  friend,  Herr 
Holbach,  who  assuredly  would  be  able  to  produce  trout. 
Would  we  kindly  mention  his  name  and  Herr  Holbach 
would  do  his  best  for  us?  Before  we  left  would  we  like 
to  see  his  Bade-anstalt?  Certainly,  we  replied,  and  so 
we  were  led  through  a  scrupulously  clean  kitchen,  to 
emerge  in  an  open-air  swimming  bath  of  extraordinary 
size  and  appointments  for  a  small  village.  A  group  of 
boys  and  girls  were  swimming  and  splashing  about  in 
the  water.  On  a  terrace  above  the  bath  was  a  cafe  where 
various  people  were  having  refreshments.  Behind  that 
was  a  large  concert  hall  where,  according  to  Herr  Holl- 
weg, the  company  danced  on  Sundays.  Nothing  has 
struck  me  more  in  Germany  than  the  excellent  and  whole- 
some way  in  which  popular  amusements  are  arranged. 
Probably  the  industrial  workers  from  the  surrounding 
district  pour  out  to  Herr  Hollweg's  bath  and  cafe  and  con- 
cert hall  on  Sundays.  But  why,  one  asks,  is  it  impossible 
to  secure  similar   amenities   for  an   English   town  and 


98  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

village,  where  loafing  and  drinking  are  often  the  dismal 
alternative  amusements  of  the  Sabbath? 

We  complimented  Herr  Hollweg  on  his  establishment 
and  then  set  out  in  pursuit  of  Herr  Holbach.  Our  road 
lay  through  the  characteristic  scenery  of  the  Bergische 
Land :  little  villages  set  deep  in  their  orchards ;  rich  pas- 
tures, wheat  fields  already  turning  golden  under  the  sum- 
mer sun.  Woods  of  beech  and  oak  and  lime  covered  the 
low  hills.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Occupation,  British 
troops  had  been  quartered  in  this  part  of  the  perimeter, 
a  point  about'which  we  were  left  in  no  doubt.  The  inhabi- 
tants from  whom  we  stopped  to  ask  the  way  countered 
my  German  by  a  fine  flow  of  English.  Small  compli- 
ments about  their  prowess  in  this  respect  causes  the  Boche 
face  to  be  wreathed  in  smiles.  One  young  woman  knew 
all  about  Herr  Holbach.  Yes,  he  had  a  large  pond  with 
"much  fish" — a  form  of  words  of  which  I  was  growing 
a  trifle  tired.  Down  the  hill  we  went  again  till  a  large 
dam  came  into  view — that  part  of  the  story  at  least  was 
true.  Also  there  must  be  some  earnest  expectation  or 
hope  of  fish,  judging  by  the  depressing  number  of  rods 
which  were  dangling  over  the  bank.  We  walked  on  to 
the  damhead,  and  there  encountered  a  hero  in  charge  of 
two  rods.  He  had  lived  in  America  and  spoke  English 
fluently.  No,  we  had  come  to  the  wrong  place  for  trout ; 
this  was  carp-fishing — witness  the  rods.  Were  there  any 
carp?  Oh  yes.  Upon  which  he  plunged  down  to  the 
water's  edge  and  produced  a  net  with  two  large  fish  in  it. 
Herr  Holbach,  who  lived  in  a  house  across  the  dam,  might 
have  some  trout-fishing,  but  he  was  doubtful  about  this. 

Our  latest  friend  had  served  in  the  Navy,  and  we  fell 
into  general  conversation  with  him.     As  is  usual  when 


IN  SEARCH  OF  A  FISHING  99 

talking-  to  German  working-men,  I  was  struck  by  a  sense 
of  weariness  and  horror  in  all  he  said  about  the  war. 
Their  rulers  had  been  mad,  that  was  his  view;  the  war 
had  brought  nothing  but  utter  misery,  there  ought  never 
to  be  another  one;  they  were  happy  and  prosperous  before, 
now  they  were  ruined.  Our  talk  on  the  damhead  was 
yet  another  proof  that  if  the  League  of  Nations  ever 
becomes  a  going  concern,  it  will  draw  its  strength,  not 
from  the  upper  classes,  many  of  whom  are  rooted  in  the 
ways  of  the  old  diplomacy,  but  from  the  humble  folk  like 
our  fisherman  whose  souls  have  been  branded  in  the 
furnace  of  war. 

But  the  afternoon  was  going  on,  and  though  we  had 
had  much  pleasant  conversation,  the  fishing  still  eluded 
us.  Herr  Holbach's  house,  or  rather  farm,  stood  on  the 
bank  of  another  lake,  and  there,  apparently,  in  addition 
to  agriculture  he  turned  an  honest  penny  by  letting  out 
boats  or  arranging  facilities  for  swimming. 

Herr  Holbach  proved  as  pleasant  as  his  predecessors, 
but  equally  elusive  on  the  subject  of  trout.  No,  he  dealt 
solely  in  carp ;  then  came  the  familiar  leitmotiv  for  w^hich 
I  was  waiting — the  English  soldiers  had  taken  all  the 
trout.  But  he  had  a  friend,  Herr  Richard  Klassen,  at 
Witzhelden,  who  had  fishing  to  let  and  enormous  trout. 
It  was  very  expensive,  but  the  trout  were  of  a  size  and 
vigour  under  which  any  ordinary  rod  would  bend  to 
breaking  point.  His  advice  to  us  was  to  go  and  interview 
Herr  Klassen,  recommended  to  that  end  by  Herr  Holbach. 
The  sun  was  drawing  to  the  west  and  long  shadows  were 
beginning  to  fall  over  the  hills  and  glades.  If  indeed  it 
was  to  be  our  fate  perpetually  to  chase  trout  from  one 
valley  to  another  in  this  smiling  land,  there  might  be  a 


100  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

worse  lot.  We  turned  our  car,  and  once  again,  hope 
triumphing  over  experience,  we  set  out  in  search  of  Herr 
Klassen. 

Herr  Klassen,  so  our  instructions  ran,  lived  near  the 
church  in  Witzhelden.  We  found  the  house  in  possession 
of  a  girl,  who  to  our  surprise  showed  signs  of  alarm  at 
the  sight  of  a  uniform.  However,  her  face  cleared  up 
when  we  explained  we  had  come  about  fishing.  Herr 
Klassen  was  in  the  hayfield ;  she  would  fetch  him.  Mean- 
while, a  neatly-dressed  elderly  man  with  a  lump  of  putrid 
meat  in  his  hand  came  up  the  road  and  took  off  his  hat 
politely.  This  was  Herr  Klassen's  brother.  The  gentle- 
man was,  like  his  niece,  a  trifle  nervous  at  seeing  us,  but 
became  garrulous  when  our  errand  was  revealed.  We 
came  from  Cologne  did  we — then  of  course  we  knew  of 
the  most  regrettable  incident  which  had  overtaken  the 
Klassen  family  last  week.  No  ?  Was  it  possible  we  had 
not  heard — they  had  been  fined  five  thousand  marks  for 
having  firearms  in  the  house; — the  whole  family  were 
devoted  to  sport  and  they  had  various  shooting  guns  they 
had  not  given  up. 

Hence  these  tears.  We  expressed  sympathy  with  the 
family  troubles,  but  said  it  was  foolish  not  to  have  men- 
tioned the  various  fowling-pieces  of  whose  innocent  in- 
tentions Herr  Klassen  spoke  with  such  conviction.  How- 
ever, he  showed  no  resentment  that  the  long  arm  of 
British  law  had  touched  him  in  his  remote  village,  though, 
as  the  hero  of  the  hour,  his  feelings  were  clearly  a  little 
hurt  that  we  had  no  knowledge  of  his  fame.  At  this 
moment  up  came  Herr  Richard  Klassen,  hot  and  per- 
spiring from  the  hayfield. 

Yes,  he  had  a  pond,  and  he  had  a  lot  of  trout.     They 


IN  SEARCH  OF  A  FISHING  101 

were  not  very  big  as  yet,  but  they  would  soon  grow ;  was 
he  not  feeding  them  on  lumps  of  the  dead  cow  whose 
remains  had  caused  me  to  get  to  windward  of  his  brother. 
Would  we  like  to  see  the  pond?  Nothing  was  easier. 
Down  another  small  valley,  therefore,  we  plunged  again 
till  the  road  came  to  an  end,  and  a  pretty  path  through 
a  wood  brought  us  out  on  the  shore  of  a  secluded  pond. 
It  was  a  peaceful  scene,  with  the  warm  sunlight  on  the 
wood  and  the  water,  and  the  sweet  smell  of  new-cut  hay 
reaching  us  from  a  neighbouring  meadow.  As  we  walked 
we  admired  the  beauty  of  the  country.  This  moved  Herr 
Klassen  to  a  flow  of  words :  the  country  was  beautiful, 
but  men  were  bad ;  since  the  war  there  was  no  honour,  no 
goodness,  no  morality.  It  was  all  greed  and  grab, 
"Wucher"  and  "Schieber."  And  the  end  would  be  Bol- 
shevism. Herr  Klassen's  lack  of  faith  in  human  nature 
was  demonstrated  practically  by  the  barbed-wire  entangle- 
ments which  surrounded  his  trout  pond.  Along  the  nar- 
row track  by  the  water's  edge  were  various,  almost  invis- 
ible, contrivances  destined  to  show  whether  any  trespasser 
had  come  that  way.  Here  at  last  were  some  trout,  if  only 
little  ones.  But  little  trout  grow,  and  Herr  Klassen  was 
emphatic  that  if  we  would  come  back  in  a  fortnight  or 
three  weeks  we  should  have  good  sport.  As  for  payment, 
it  was  to  be  strictly  by  results — no  fish,  no  cash.  All  fish 
caught  were  paid  for  at  so  much  a  pound — a  very  fair 
arrangement. 

It  was  pleasant  to  linger  by  the  water-side  in  the  eve- 
ning sunshine,  and,  pipes  and  cigarettes  being  produced, 
the  talk  slid  east  and  west  over  matters  of  greater  moment 
than  the  trout.  We  had  been  joined  by  a  friend  of  Herr 
Klassen's,  a  wag  with  red  hair  and  freckled  face  who 


102  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

poked  fun  at  his  neighbour  with  great  vigour.  Freckles 
had  been  to  the  war,  Herr  Klassen  had  not — the  women 
and  the  Church  would  not  let  him  go,  declared  the  former ; 
at  which  Herr  Klassen  raised  protesting  hands  to  heaven. 
Both  men  spoke  with  evident  alarm  of  Bolshevism.  An- 
other war  was  bound  to  come,  only  next  time  it  would 
be  a  Bolshevist  war.  It  must  be  remembered  this  pleas- 
ant Bergische  Land  is  not  so  very  far  removed  from  the 
Ruhr  district,  and  that  at  Remscheid  only  a  few  miles 
away  there  had  been  shootings  and  murders.  The  spectre 
of  anarchy  and  red  revolution  has  come  very  near  homes 
such  as  Herr  Klassen's,  and  for  revolution  a  small  farmer 
of  his  type  has  nothing  but  horror.  We  asked  about  the 
new  Republican  Government.  It  moved  neither  man  to 
much  enthusiasm.  Weakness  can  never  inspire  enthu- 
siasm, and  the  policy  pursued  by  the  Allies  towards  Ger- 
many has  made  it  impossible  for  any  government  to  be 
strong.  Herr  Klassen  said  what  they  wanted  was  a  con- 
stitutional monarchy  like  England.  They  were  doubtful 
of  Republics.  France  was  a  Republic  and  they  did  not 
want  to  be  like  France. 

We  talked  of  the  war  and  the  peace  and  the  threatening 
condition  of  affairs  in  Eastern  Europe.  Both  men  called 
down  fire  from  heaven  on  the  Poles.  No  German  can 
speak  of  a  Pole  in  measured  language.  Soon  there  would 
be  a  Bolshevist  army  in  Warsaw,  and  then  what  was  go- 
ing to  happen  to  Germany?  Freckles,  who  had  fought 
on  the  Eastern  Front,  spoke  well  of  the  Russians.  They 
were  brave  men,  so  he  said,  and  if  properly  armed  and 
properly  led  would  fight  as  well  as  the  Germans.  They 
had  no  chance  in  the  war ;  men  could  not  fight  with  spades 
and  hayforks.    They  were  mown  down  like  sheep  because 


IN  SEARCH  OF  A  FISHING  103 

they  had  often  neither  rifles  nor  guns.  Klassen  had  had 
a  Russian  prisoner  working  on  his  farm  and  had  found 
him  a  good  fellow.  Freckles,  who  was,  I  gathered,  not 
a  man  of  property,  was  rather  attracted  by  some  of  the 
anti-capitalist  ideas  of  the  Bolsheviks.  Klassen  was  talk- 
ing bitterly  of  the  Schiebers  and  the  terrific  price  of  food 
and  goods  in  Germany — capitalism  was  a  curse.  "What 
are  you  but  a  capitalist,"  retorted  Freckles  with  a  grin; 
"you  have  four  cows  and  some  land  and  a  pond  full  of 
trout" — before  which  sally  Klassen,  who  was  clearly  at 
the  mercy  of  his  more  nimble-witted  friend,  collapsed 
entirely.  "What  about  the  arms,  too,"  said  Freckles  with 
another  grin  and  a  wink  in  our  direction.  Klassen  turned 
to  us  as  eagerly  as  his  brother.  Of  course  we  had  heard 
of  the  law  proceedings  in  Cologne  at  which  he  had  been 
fined?  No?  His  face  fell  on  realising  the  limited  span 
of  his  fame ;  it  was  a  terrible  affair;  he  did  not  know  how 
he  should  get  the  money  for  the  fine. 

We  packed  both  men  into  the  car  and  took  them  back 
to  the  village,  where  we  parted  with  mutual  goodwill. 
"In  a  fortnight,  then,"  said  Klassen,  "you  will  come 
again  when  the  fish  are  bigger.  Yes,  you  can  bring  a 
friend  too  if  you  wish." 

So  we  said  good  evening  and,  consoled  by  the  dis- 
covery of  a  secret  pond  if  we  had  failed  to  secure  a  length 
of  stream,  travelled  westwards  towards  the  setting  sun 
and  Cologne. 


CHAPTER  IX 
WHO  PAYS? 

To  the  traveller  passing  from  the  devastated  regions  of 
France  to  the  hills  and  valleys  of  the  Rhineland,  there  is 
something  almost  scandalous  in  the  impression  of  wealth 
and  solidity  conveyed  by  the  latter  country.  "These  peo- 
ple have  not  suffered  in  the  war  at  all,''  said  an  English- 
woman in  Cologne  to  me  indignantly ;  "look  at  the  world- 
wide misery  they  have  provoked;  look  at  the  state  of 
France,  and  then  see  how  lightly  the  Germans  themselves 
have  escaped :  everything  intact  and  their  country  un- 
touched." 

But  has  Germany  really  escaped  so  lightly  ?  Untouched 
her  country  may  be;  intact  in  one  vital  particular  it  cer- 
tainly is  not.  Bricks  and  mortar  can  in  time  be  replaced, 
shell  holes  can  be  filled  in,  and  the  plough  pass  again  over 
the  devastated  fields.  But  at  a  date  when  the  material 
destruction  of  France  will  be,  let  us  hope,  to  a  large 
extent  repaired,  Germany  will  still  be  paying  for  the  sins 
of  her  rulers  in  the  bodies  of  a  generation  a  large  pro- 
portion of  which  will  be  enfeebled  and  diseased.  It  is  an 
insidious  form  of  payment,  lacking  in  obviousness  or 
dramatic  quality.  But  its  ultimate  thoroughness  ought 
to  satisfy  even  the  moralists  who  demand  that  an  entity 

called  Germany  should  be  punished,  quite  irrespective  of 

104 


1 


WHO  PAYS?  105 

the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  actual  person  on  whom  the 
punishment  falls. 

A  mile  or  more  below  the  Hohenzollern  bridge,  where 
four  kings  of  Prussia  on  their  bronze  horses  survey  a 
world  fashioned  now  on  other  lines  than  those  contem- 
plated by  Prussian  arrogance,  the  Rhine  flows  along  a 
ribbon  of  green  strand  which  serves  as  a  recreation 
ground  for  the  children  of  the  district.  Here  on  a  sum- 
mer evening  we  sometimes  walk  and  watch  young  Ger- 
many at  play:  children  of  all  ages  bathing,  paddling, 
shouting,  laughing,  amusing  themselves  in  a  hundred  dif- 
ferent ways,  while  their  parents  sit  in  little  groups,  the 
women  sewing  or  knitting,  the  men  with  their  pipes. 

Children  abound  in  Germany.  They  swarm  in  droves 
in  every  direction.  Surely,  you  say,  these  hunger  stories 
must  have  been  exaggerated !  The  rising  generation  does 
not  appear  to  be  much  affected,  judging  by  its  numbers. 
To  the  casual  observer  there  seems  to  be  very  little  amiss 
with  these  Rhineland  children.  My  first  impression  was 
that  they  compared  favourably  with  many  children  in  our 
own  industrial  centres.  The  German  working-classes  are 
self-respecting  folk,  and  however  slender  their  resources 
in  food  and  clothing  during  the  war,  they  made  the  most 
of  them.  Also  it  must  be  remembered  the  Rhineland  is 
one  of  the  richest  provinces,  agriculturally  no  less  than 
commercially,  in  the  Empire,  and  that  the  British  Occu- 
pation had  resulted  in  nine  months  of  adequate  feeding 
before  I  saw  Cologne. 

Nevertheless,  after  a  time  I  found  myself  modifying 
my  first  favourable  impression.  The  clothes  of  the  poor- 
est children  are  neat  and  tidy.    But  large  numbers  of  the 


106  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

children,  trim  though  their  appearance,  are  pinched  and 
pasty-faced.  Under  the  short  skirts  bare  legs  are  seen 
often  thin  and  rickety.  Little  by  little  my  attention  was 
arrested  by  two  facts:  first,  that  these  crowds  of  children 
were  all  apparently  very  much  of  an  age;  secondly,  that 
the  proportion  of  babies  to  children  seemed  extraordi- 
narily small.  Below  the  age  of  two  and  a  half  to  three 
the  juvenile  population  comes  to  an  abrupt  halt.  After 
a  time,  intrigued  during  my  walks  by  the  relative  absence 
of  babies,  I  took  to  counting  perambulators  or  babies  in 
arms.  The  numbers  were  strikingly  small.  Motoring 
through  Bonn  one  Sunday  afternoon  in  1919  when  the 
family  life  of  the  town  had  turned  out  into  the  streets 
and  gardens,  I  counted  six  babies  in  all.  The  explanation 
is  simple.  Statistics  show  that  there  has  been  a  rise  in 
the  death  rate  of  German  children  between  two  and  six 
of  over  49  per  cent,  during  the  years  19 13- 19 17.  Among 
school  children  from  six  to  fifteen  the  death  rate  rose  55 
per  cent,  in  1918  as  compared  with  19 13.  As  for  the  older 
children,  their  apparent  uniformity  of  age  is  largely  due 
to  arrested  development.  Many  of  them  are  much  older 
than  they  seem.  Of  course  there  is  no  general  rule. 
Some  children  look  astonishingly  well  and  plump  if 
others  are  thin  and  pasty-faced. 

Coming  home  one  evening  along  the  banks  of  the  river, 
we  passed  two  typical  working-class  families,  each  sup- 
plied with  a  perambulator.  One  held  the  fattest  and 
rosiest  baby  imaginable.  I  admired  Heinrich,  and  was 
told  he  was  nine  months  old — born  at  the  time  of  the 
Armistice.  Whatever  the  prenatal  conditions  of  the 
mother,  the  baby  had  not  suffered.  But  the  other  child 
— a  little  girl  of  eighteen  months — its  memory  haunts  me 


WHO  PAYS?  107 

still.  A  tiny  shrivelled  face  looked  up  at  me  under  the 
bravery  of  a  blue-and-white  bonnet ;  tragic  haunting  eyes 
set  in  an  emaciated  body.  My  mind  harked  back,  as  I 
looked,  to  the  devastated  areas  and  to  the  cruel  sufferings 
and  losses  of  France.  But  here,  on  the  frail  body  of  this 
unhappy  German  child,  war  had  set  its  seal  as  unmis- 
takably as  among  the  crater  holes  and  shattered  buildings 
of  the  line.  Conqueror  and  conquered  we  looked  at  each 
other,  till  I  the  conqueror  could  look  no  more.  Do  any 
robust  spirits  still  survive,  I  wonder,  who  take  the  view 
that  an  occasional  war  is  a  good  thing — that  it  freshens 
every  one  up  and  makes,  for  briskness  and  efficiency  ?  Is 
it  possible,  after  all  we  have  endured  and  are  still  endur- 
ing, that  large  numbers  of  people  in  a  mood  of  helpless 
fatalism  are  already  talking  about  "the  next  war";  while 
many  of  them  are  actively  encouraging  policies  and  popu- 
lar sentiments,  the  logical  outcome  of  which  is  a  future 
conflict  even  more  ghastly  than  the  last  one? 

Meanwhile,  the  martyred  child  life  of  Europe  cries  to 
heaven  against  this  theory.  The  sufferings  of  the  Central 
Empires  in  this  respect  have  been  heaviest.  "Tu  I'as 
voulu,  Georges  Dandin,''  Germany,  in  pulling  down  the 
pillars  of  Europe,  has  involved  all  this  for  her  own  peo- 
ple. But  why,  one  asks,  should  the  heaviest  toll  be  paid 
by  those  who  have  least  measure  of  responsibility?  Why 
should  the  Junkers  and  horrid  old  gentlemen  covered  with 
decorations,  who  made  the  war,  be  living  comfortably  on 
their  estates  while  the  children  of  the  working-classes 
have  perished?  It  is  the  natural  instinct  of  every  decent 
person  to  shield  a  child  from  suffering,  and  as  I  watch 
the  boys  and  girls  playing  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  the 
whole  question  of  the  war  takes  on  an  aspect  from  which 


108  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

every  vestige  of  glamour  and  chivalry  and  romance  has 
vanished.  These  merry  children  at  their  games :  it  is  on 
them  that  the  hand  of  Britain's  sea  power,  however  un- 
wittingly, has  rested  in  its  heaviest  form.  The  British 
people  would  repudiate  with  anger  any  idea  of  making 
war  on  children.  But  war  has  a  horrible  vitality  of  its 
own  and  goes  its  own  way,  moulding  men  more  than  it 
is  moulded  by  them.  These  things  follow  inexorably 
from  the  very  character  of  modern  warfare,  which  is  no 
more  a  struggle  between  armies,  but  between  nations. 
Noncombatants  have  ceased  to  exist,  and  those  who  make 
wars  must  reckon  on  babies  as  cannon  fodder. 

So  long  as  there  are  wars,  the  weapon  of  the  blockade 
is  inevitable.  We  were  fighting  for  our  lives  and  had  no 
choice  but  to  use  it.  The  German  submarine  campaign 
was  directed  to  the  starvation  of  England,  and  bitterly 
though  they  complain  of  our  blockade,  their  own  minds 
were  set  on  identical  ends  so  far  as  we  were  concerned. 
But  blockade  means  infant  mortality  on  an  appalling  scale, 
and  if  statesmen  and  militarists  are  indifferent  to  such 
things,  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  democracies  of  the  world  will 
view  matters  differently.  So  far  as  Germany  is  con- 
cerned it  is  through  her  children  she  is  hit. 

The  Occupied  Areas  have  suffered  the  least  of  any  in 
Germany.  Yet  even  in  this  relatively  favoured  land  the 
state  of  affairs  is  bad  enough.  In  Bonn,  for  some  reason, 
things  seem  to  have  been  worse  than  in  Cologne.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  feeling  of  utter  helplessness  with  which 
I  saw  a  group  of  rickety-looking  Bonn  children  staring 
hungrily  into  the  windows  of  a  chocolate  shop.  We  took 
them  in  and  gave  them  sweets;  there  were  no  cakes  or 
buns  to  be  had,  and  bread  is  rationed.     Poor  children, 


WHO  PAYS?  109 

they  gathered  round  us  in  a  state  of  frantic  excitement 
when  we  produced  slabs  of  chocolate.  The  fatuity  of  our 
own  action  was  miserably  apparent.  For  these  children 
were  only  typical  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  cases  all 
over  Europe,  and  even  so  their  circumstances  were  far 
better  than  what  obtains  in  m.any  other  countries.  Chil- 
dren, of  course,  cannot  grow  up  and  be  healthy  without 
milk,  and  milk  is  unobtainable  in  the  towns.  The  munici- 
pality doles  out  a  limited  supply  to  invalids,  nursing 
mothers,  and  babies,  but  children  above  a  certain  age  never 
see  fresh  milk,  and  tinned  milk  is  too  expensive  a  luxury 
to  figure  in  the  daily  dietary  of  the  working-classes.  Most 
German  children  have  nothing  but  "ersatz"  coffee  to  drink 
in  its  unqualified  nastiness.  The  distribution  of  food  on 
fair  lines  has  proved  a  great  failure  in  Germany,  and  the 
prolonged  malnourishment  of  the  children  is  likely  to 
have  consequences  of  the  gravest  character. 

A  shattered  house,  a  ruined  village  tell  their  own  very 
obvious  tale.  Physical  deterioration  is  a  subtle  thing  far 
less  easy  to  recognize  or  to  estimate.  It  is  only  little  by 
little  that  one  realises  the  state  of  affairs  produced  by  the 
blockade  and  the  degree  to  which  the  morale  of  the  whole 
nation  has  been  undermined  by  starvation.  It  is  true  that 
the  Germans  cling  desperately  to  what  sorry  comfort  they 
can  derive  from  the  theory  that  their  armies  in  the  field 
were  never  defeated — that  they  were  brought  down  at 
the  last  by  hunger.  They  still  assure  you  their  armies  were 
magnificent — never  were  there  such  soldiers.  But  to- 
wards the  end  rations  failed,  and  morale  broke  through 
stories  of  starvation  at  home.  "We  had  not  plenty  of 
bully  beef  like  you,"  said  a  German  soldier  to  us;  "you 
did  not  get  letters  saying  your  wife  and  children  had 


110  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

nothing  to  eat.  We  could  have  gone  on  fighting  if  we 
had  had  food."  He  spoke  with  that  curious  lack  of 
resentment  which  is  a  constant  puzzle  among  these  people. 
Consistent  and  growing  hunger  spread  over  a  term  of 
years  is  not  a  pleasant  experience.  Germany,  unlike 
France,  has  been  spared  the  horrors  of  the  invader  on  her 
soil.  But  no  mistake  could  be  greater  than  to  imagine 
that  the  war  she  provoked  has  proved  a  frolic  for  her, 
while  all  the  rest  of  the  world  suffered. 

A  Report  by  Professor  Starling  and  two  British  col- 
leagues, on  "Food  and  Agricultural  Conditions  in  Ger- 
many," gives  the  results  of  an  official  inquiry  made  by  the 
British  Government  as  to  food  and  health  questions  in  the 
spring  of  1919.    The  Report  shows  an  increased  number 
of  deaths  among  the  civilian  population,  from  191 5  to 
1918,  of  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  million  persons 
as  compared  with  normal  pre-war  estimates.     In  plain 
language,  three-quarters  of  a  million  people  have  died 
from  starvation  or  the  consequences  of  underfeeding.    In 
the  last  year  of  the  war  the  civilian  death  rate  was  up  37 
per  cent.     The  infant  and  child  mortality  figures  quoted 
above  are  taken  from  this  Report.     To  the  number  of 
deaths  must  be  added  the  very  much  larger  proportion  of 
children  and  adults  who  survive  with  constitutions  perma- 
nently impaired.     Discoursing  learnedly  of  the  number 
of  calories  required  to  keep  a  normal  man  in  normal 
health,  Professor  Starling  shows  that  the  Germans  were 
living  on  just  half  the  necessary  amount.     There  were 
great  inequalities  between  town  and  country,  owing  to 
the  reluctance  of  the  country  districts  to  surrender  the 
food  they  produced.     The  urban  populations,  of  course, 
suffered  most. 


WHO  PAYS?  Ill 

The  three  British  investigators  give  a  sorry  account  of 
the  children  they  examined  in  the  schools,  hospitals,  pub- 
lic kitchens.  Some  people  may  say  that  the  fewer  German 
babies  in  the  world  the  better.  I  feel  certain,  however, 
that  no  theoretical  holder  of  that  view  would  act  upon  it 
when  brought  face  to  face  with  some  of  these  hollow- 
eyed  children  you  see  in  the  streets.  Professor  Starling 
and  his  colleagues  visited  Berlin  and  Upper  Silesia,  as 
well  as  the  Occupied  Territories.  Everywhere  they  found 
the  same  condition  of  mental  and  moral  prostration,  of 
apathy,  and  lowered  vitality.  Disease  has  flourished,  of 
course,  in  the  wake  of  starvation.  The  statistics  of  con- 
sumption show  an  alarming  increase  in  the  percentage  of 
people  attacked.  Enfeebled  bodies,  young  and  old,  can- 
not resist  the  inroads  of  infectious  complaints.  Matters 
grow  steadily  worse  as  the  eastern  frontiers  are  ap- 
proached. Beyond,  in  Poland  and  Russia,  a  state  of 
affairs  exists  about  which  most  people,  happily  for  them- 
selves, have  not  sufficient  imagination  to  form  a  clear 
picture. 

German  conditions  have  not  sunk  to  levels  of  misery 
so  profound  as  those  which  exist  elsewhere,  but  they  are 
bad  enough  to  afford  a  useful  standard  as  to  the  situation 
in  Austria,  Russia,  and  other  countries.  That  luxury 
and  great  extravagance  exist  side  by  side  with  dire  want 
and  starvation  is  a  feature  of  the  fatal  coil  w^hich  is 
throttling  the  economic  life  of  Europe.  Thoughtless 
travellers  are  often  misled  by  a  superficial  appearance  of 
prosperity  in  the  main  streets  of  big  towns.  Newspaper 
correspondents  seek  from  time  to  time  to  decry  the  exist- 
ing misery  by  giving  accounts  of  the  gay  life  in  some 
cities  and  the  excellent  food  obtainable  at  a  price  in  large 


112  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

restaurants.  The  fact  that  food  of  such  a  kind  can  be 
had  does  not  prove  the  unreality  of  starvation.  All  that 
it  proves  is  a  complete  breakdown  in  rationing,  and  fail- 
ures in  distribution  operating  most  unfairly  in  favour  of 
the  rich.  The  good  dinner  paid  for  at  a  fancy  price  is 
only  a  link  in  the  chain.  At  the  other  end  are  families 
whose  destitution  is  the  greater  because  the  inefficiency  of 
control  has  made  the  serving  of  such  a  dinner  possible. 

When  the  history  of  the  war  comes  to  be  written,  the 
question  of  food  production  and  distribution  in  Germany 
will  prove  a  suggestive  no  less  than  a  tragic  page.  The 
German  machine,  admirable  for  carrying  out  a  carefully 
devised  military  policy,  was  useless  for  meeting  unfore- 
seen contingencies  which  call  for  public  spirit  rather  than 
for  regulation.  The  failure  to  grapple  with  the  food  ques- 
tion was  complete.  German  officialism  seems  to  have 
collapsed  helplessly  before  the  problem  of  distribution 
and  rationing.  Though  fresh  milk  is  unobtainable  in 
Cologne  to-day — except  the  special  supplies  rationed  by 
the  municipality — it  can  be  had  in  the  country  ten  miles 
out.  Considerable  efforts  were  made  during  the  war  to 
provide  a  limited  amount  of  milk  for  children  and  nurs- 
ing mothers.  But  with  better  distribution  the  supplies 
available  might  have  gone  much  further.  The  Govern- 
ment of  a  country  cannot  have  it  both  ways,  as  the  Prus- 
sian autocrats  found  to  their  cost.  It  cannot  at  one  and 
the  same  time  exact  and  obtain  docile  obedience  to  a 
machine  and  simultaneously  develop  that  free  spirit  of 
public  co-operation  which  was  the  salvation  of  England 
during  the  war.  In  our  own  country  public  opinion  rose 
to  the  occasion  with  a  will.  All  classes  worked  together 
to  make  rationing  a  success,  and  the  brilliant  improvisa- 


WHO  PAYS?  113 

tions  of  the  Ministry  of  Food  carried  the  nation  over  a 
crisis  of  unparalleled  magnitude  in  a  manner  highly 
creditable  to  every  one  concerned. 

Let  us  admit  at  once  that  our  food  problem  did  not 
approach  that  of  the  Germans  in  difficulty.  For  one  thing, 
the  problem  of  distribution  was  largely  solved  for  us  by 
the  fact  that  we  relied  mainly  on  imported  supplies  on 
which  the  Food  authorities  could  lay  their  hands  at  the 
ports.  In  Germany,  on  the  contrary,  85  per  cent,  of  the 
food  was  produced  within  her  own  borders.  Self -pro- 
ducers firmly  determined  to  be  self -consumers  are  not 
easy  to  deal  with.  Then  again,  though  there  was  shortage 
and  inconvenience,  we  were  never  really  hungry.  Greedy 
and  selfish  people  exist  among  all  classes  and  nations,  and 
we  had  our  share  of  both.  But  making  the  largest  allow- 
ance for  the  greater  difficulties  of  the  Germans,  the 
moral  is,  I  think,  striking  as  regards  the  spirit  which  a 
free  people  can  show  in  a  time  of  stress  as  against  the 
dragooned  temper  of  a  military  nation.  Military  rules 
could  not  deal  with  the  food  question.  In  a  matter  which 
necessarily  was  independent  of  sabre-rattling,  no  pressure 
of  an  independent  public  opinion  seems  to  have  filled  the 
gap. 

The  struggle  between  town  and  country  to  get  posses- 
sion of  the  food  supplies  was  severe.  Every  German  is 
full  of  complaints  about  the  selfishness  of  the  country 
people.  Not  only  did  they  keep  enough  food  for  them- 
selves— which,  after  all,  was  natural — but  they  lived  in 
plenty  while  the  towns  starved.  It  may  be  said  broadly 
that  there  was  no  hunger  or  any  particular  suffering 
among  the  people  on  the  land.  Among  the  industrial 
classes,  estimated  at  from  twenty-eight  to  thirty  millions 


114.  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

of  the  population,  the  suffering  on  the  other  hand  was 
severe.  But  even  to  this  rule  there  were  many  exceptions. 
Wealth,  always  a  weapon  of  dominant  value,  is  of  su- 
preme importance  when  hunger  is  abroad,  and  this  weapon 
was  used  mercilessly  by  the  prosperous  classes.  The 
working  classes  who  were  earning  large  wages  were  in 
many  cases  able  to  pay  for  additional  food;  the  people 
who  bit  the  dust  were  primarily  the  minor  professional 
and  official  classes. 

Among  the  words  added  to  the  German  vocabulary  by 
the  war  is  that  of  Schleichhandel — illicit  trading. 
Schleichhandel  permeated  the  whole  national  life.  The 
Schleichhandlers — the  little  brothers  of  the  Schiebers  or 
profiteers — were  rampant.  The  Schiebers  and  other 
wealthy  families  had  Schleichhandlers  in  their  pay  whose 
business  it  was  to  find  them  food.  From  highest  to  low- 
est the  same  spirit  obtained.  All  accounts  agree  as  to  the 
extraordinarily  demoralising  consequences  of  illicit  trad' 
ing  on  the  morale  of  the  race.  Professor  Starling  states 
that,  had  the  existing  food  supplies  been  distributed  on  a 
fair  and  equitable  basis,  there  would  have  been  enough  to 
go  round,  and  the  effects  of  the  blockade  might  to  a  large 
extent  have  been  countered.  If  the  attempt  was  made,  it 
failed  lamentably.  The  terrible  winter  of  1916-1917, 
known  as  the  "swede  winter" — owing  to  the  failure  of 
potatoes — will  never  be  forgotten  by  the  present  genera- 
tion of  Germans. 

Matters  have  improved  somewhat  during  the  year  1919- 
1920.  But  the  prices  of  food  and  necessaries  of  life  are 
still  so  high  that,  despite  the  considerable  rise  in  wages, 
many  working-people  cannot  afford  to  pay  for  adequate 
nourishment.     The  present  food  shortage  is  still  great 


WHO  PAYS?  115 

and,  owing  to  the  absence  of  feeding  stufifs  and  manures, 
stock  and  land  have  both  deteriorated.  Supplies  remain, 
therefore,  at  a  level  far  below  that  of  pre-war  production, 
a  circumstance  aggravated  by  the  world  shortage  and  the 
financial  chaos  of  the  country. 

Three  special  consequences  have  resulted  from  this  state 
of  affairs.  There  has  been,  in  the  first  place,  an  extraor- 
dinary embitterment  of  feeling  between  town  and  coun- 
try ;  the  urban  classes  bear  the  agriculturists  a  deep  grudge 
for  the  part  they  played  in  the  w^ar  and  the  prosperity 
they  acquired  by  exploiting  their  neighbours. 

Secondly,  there  has  been  a  great  intensification  of  class 
hatred  as  between  rich  and  poor.  The  ordinary  German 
artisan  or  shopkeeper  speaks  with  intense  bitterness  of  the 
upper  classes.  They  were  selfish,  they  were  hard,  they 
were  greedy,  they  did  nothing  for  the  poor,  they  lived  in 
comfort  while  others  starved.  The  well-to-do  classes 
apparently  were  shameless  at  grabbing  at  all  they  could 
get.  The  average  German  does  not  believe  any  rich  per- 
son could  or  would  act  otherwise.  Talking  to  Germans 
about  our  respective  war  shortages,  I  have  mentioned 
more  than  once  that  I  had  various  friends  in  England 
who,  having  farms  and  producing  food,  kept  their  own 
households  on  the  rationed  allowance  and  sent  the  rest  to 
market.  The  look  of  absolute  incredulity  on  their  faces 
made  me  realise  they  thought  I  was  pitching  a  fine  but 
wholly  preposterous  tale  to  the  credit  of  my  own  country. 
It  was  obvious  they  did  not  believe  a  word  I  said.  The 
behaviour  of  the  German  upper  classes  in  this  time  of 
testing  has  had,  and  is  likely  to  have,  very  considerable 
reactions  on  the  political  situation.  That  the  Junkers  and 
militarists  have  brought  this  particular  form  of  discredit 


116  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

on  themselves  is  all  to  the  good.  It  will  tell  heavily 
against  such  doubtful  chances  as  exist  of  their  achieving 
even  a  measure  of  political  rehabilitation. 

An  English  person  brought  in  contact  with  these  melan- 
choly facts  can  only  reflect  with  legitimate  pride  on  the 
different  spirit  shown  in  our  own  country.  No  aristocracy 
in  Europe  has  come  through  the  war  with  credit  so  high 
as  that  of  the  British  upper  classes.  From  the  throne 
downwards,  men  and  women  alike,  they  pulled  their 
weight  in  the  boat  as  good  citizens,  bore  their  full  share 
of  death  and  suffering,  and  contributed  an  adequate  quota 
to  the  united  effort  of  the  nation.  I  have  found  no  evi- 
dence in  Germany  of  that  mutual  goodwill  between  classes 
which  was  a  hopeful  and  encouraging  feature  in  our  own 
land.  German  life  in  this,  as  in  many  other  respects,  has 
to  be  reconstituted  from  the  foundations  upwards. 

The  third  outstanding  social  reaction  of  the  war  is  the 
degree  to  which  ordinary  standards  of  honesty  and  fair 
dealing  have  broken  down  between  man  and  man.  The 
food  shortage,  and  the  cheating  to  which  it  led,  appears 
to  have  entered  largely  into  the  matter.  Thoughtful  Ger- 
mans deplore  the  moral  debacle  which  has  overtaken  the 
country.  Profiteering  has  been  quite  shameless.  The 
"Schiebers"  have  exploited  a  disastrous  economic  situa- 
tion, and  many  large  fortunes  were  made  during  the  war. 
The  strange  paradox  of  extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty 
goes  on  side  by  side.  Even  the  official  classes  have  shown 
themselves  on  occasions  as  selfish  as  the  landowners  and 
the  profiteers,  and  no  less  unscrupulous  in  exploiting  the 
advantages  of  their  position.  So  late  as  August  1920  ugly 
charges  were  brought  by  the  Socialists  against  the  Mayor 
of  Cologne  and  other  City  Fathers  with  reference  to  the 


WHO  PAYS?  117 

milk  and  butter  supply  of  the  town.  The  facts  which 
came  to  light  proved  that  there  had  been,  at  the  very 
lowest,  culpable  slackness  in  administration  and  gross 
favouritism  in  the  distribution  of  available  supplies.  City 
councillors  had  milk  while  sick  children  had  none.  The 
anger  created  by  these  revelations  is  easily  understood. 

While  corruption  permeates  the  upper  and  middle 
levels,  robbery  and  crime  are  widespread  among  the 
working-classes.  Thieving  has  become  a  normal  quantity 
in  daily  life;  crimes  of  all  kinds  are  common.  Official 
figures  were  published  in  Cologne  during  July  1920, 
showing  the  large  increase  in  criminality  throughout  the 
district  as  compared  with  the  previous  year.  Serious 
crimes  had  increased  by  45  per  cent.,  housebreaking  44 
per  cent.,  robberies  in  shops,  warehouses,  etc.,  95  per 
cent.,  minor  robberies  85  per  cent.  Every  man's  hand  is 
against  his  neighbour ;  suspicion  and  fear  poison  the 
whole  spirit  of  communal  life.  Hunger,  and  the  general 
sense  of  demoralisation  born  of  defeat  and  downfall, 
are  responsible  in  the  main  for  the  increase  in  petty 
thefts.  Railway  wagons  and  warehouses  containing  food 
are  robbed  systematically.  War  is  not  a  good  school  for 
enforcing  the  catechismal  injunction  about  keeping  your 
hands  from  picking  and' stealing.  An  invading  army  takes 
what  it  wants  where  it  can  find  it,  and  the  habit  once 
acquired  is  not  easily  lost. 

Every  class  of  society  in  Germany  to-day  feels  that, 
bad  as  things  are,  much  worse  probably  has  yet  to  come. 
A  sentiment  akin  to  despair  is  widespread.  The  business 
community,  confronted  with  an  economic  situation  quite 
hopeless  in  its  outlook,  give  way  in  many  cases  to  helpless 
fatalism  about  the  future.    Restraints  are  thrown  off,  and 


118  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

despair  expresses  itself  frequently  in  wild  extravagance. 
With  the  sword  of  an  indefinite  indemnity  hanging  over 
them,  wealthy  Germans  feel  that  a  spell  of  riotous  living 
in  which  their  capital  disappears  is  preferable  to  handing 
over  the  latter  to  their  enemies.     The  working-people, 
confronted  not  only  with  food  shortage,  but  with  the  ab- 
normal cost  of  clothing  and  other  necessaries,  grow  more 
and  more  restless.     All  this  is  a  dangerous  temper,  not 
only  hostile  to  economic  and  social  recovery,  but  a  pre- 
mium on  revolution.    If  Allied  policy  is  directed  to  creat- 
ing this  temper,  then  it  must  be  congratulated  on  a  success 
not  always  conspicuous  as  regards  its  efforts  in  other 
fields.    The  policy  pursued,  however,  has  its  dangers.    A 
hungry  country,  balancing  the  possible  advantages  of  rev- 
olution, can  pay  no  indenmity  nor  make  reparation  for 
damage  done.    One  or  two  axioms  in  this  matter  are  self- 
evident.     If  Germany  is  to  pay  her  indemnity,  she  must 
work ;  she  cannot  work  unless  food  and  raw  materials  are 
forthcoming  in  adequate  quantities;  with  her  finances  in 
ruins  she  cannot  begin  to  reorganise  them  unless  told  what 
definite  charges  she  has  to  meet;  if  she  is  to  carry  out 
her  obligations,  she  must  have  a  stable  government  which 
commands  confidence  at  home  and  is  treated  with  some 
consideration  abroad.     It  is  quite  easy  to  pursue  a  policy 
which  will  make  the  fulfilment  of  all  or  any  of  these 
conditions  impossible.     But  how  far  a  deepening  of  the 
present  confusion  will  serve  the  ends  of  the  Allies,  let 
alone  promote  the  cause  of  peace,  is  a  mark  of  interroga- 
tion hung  in  menacing  fashion  to-day  over  the  welter  of 
Europe. 


CHAPTER  X 
CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN 

A  FINE  Spring  morning,  ten  days'  leave,  a  motor  car,  the 
open  road  calling  us  to  new  sights  and  fresh  adventures — 
in  such  good  case  we  left  Cologne  one  April  forenoon  for 
Wiesbaden.  The  plum  blossom  was  over,  but  the  apple 
blossom  was  in  great  beauty  all  the  way.  Why,  one 
asks,  cannot  English  roads  be  planted  with  trees  whose 
shade  is  a  blessing  to  the  traveller  in  the  summer  months  ? 
And  again,  what  happens  to  the  fruit  on  the  myriad  trees 
which  grow  along  the  highways  of  Germany?  Are  Ger- 
man little  boys  endowed  with  virtue  of  such  abnormal 
quality  that  they  survive  the  chronic  temptations  to  which 
they  must  be  subjected  in  the  matter  of  pears,  and  ap- 
ples, and  plums?  Even  the  ingenious  theory  that  the  ap- 
ples are  cooking  ones,  designed  if  stolen  to  inflict  adequate 
punishment  on  youthful  stomachs,  cannot  explain  away 
these  innumerable  orchards  and  long  avenues  of  fruit 
trees.  The  Rhineland  is  a  garden  of  enchantment  when 
the  blossom  is  in  flower.  It  is  a  hard  saying  that  any 
sight  on  earth  can  be  more  beautiful  than  an  English 
spring  at  its  best.  And  yet,  with  memories  of  an  April 
in  the  Rhineland,  I  am  bound  at  least  to  hesitate. 

Thanks  to  the  absence  of  smoke,  there  is  nothing  to 
sully  the  purity  of  the  air.  The  vivid  green  of  the  fields, 
the  yellow  splashes  of  mustard,  the  varied  tints  of  tree, 
and  bush,  and  blossom — all  this  melts  and  glows  together 

1^9 


120  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

in  the  clear  sunlight.  Wherever  the  road  touches  the 
great  river,  the  beauty  of  deep  flowing  waters  is  added  to 
the  scene.  The  Rhine  maidens  themselves  must  surely 
be  at  play  in  the  sunshine  as  the  Rhine  sweeps  by  hill  and 
vineyard.  Their  laughter  and  joyous  song  can  be  heard 
by  fancy's  ear.  Forget  the  presence  of  road,  railway,  and 
villa,  and  on  that  piece  of  jutting  rock  Siegfried  must 
have  talked  with  the  three  sisters  and  mocked  their  en- 
treaties about  the  ring.  The  great  world  of  Wagner's 
music  is  connected  in  a  special  sense  with  the  Rhine. 
The  elemental  beings  with  whom  he  peopled  its  banks 
and  waters  are  more  in  the  picture  than  prosaic  tourists 
of  our  own  type.  Withal,  who  are  we  to  grumble  at  the 
latter-day  comforts  of  motor  cars  and  broad  highways 
which  bring  these  delights  within  our  reach?  So  we 
picnicked  by  the  roadside  in  great  contentment  of  spirits 
while  a  lark  sang  overhead.  Wisely  was  it  once  written, 
"there  will  always  be  something  to  live  for  so  long  as 
there  are  shimmery  afternoons." 

Coblenz,  which  we  reached  in  due  course,  is  a  shabby 
city  magnificently  situated  at  the  junction  of  the  Rhine 
and  the  Mosel.  No  town  in  the  Rhineland  lies  so  nobly, 
overlooked  as  it  is  by  the  great  rock  of  Ehrenbreitstein. 
The  river  front  of  Coblenz  is  second  to  none  in  the  whole 
course  of  the  stream.  Yet  the  town  itself  is  cramped 
and  curiously  dirty  for  a  German  city.  It  gives  the  im- 
pression of  a  poor  place  which  has  dropped  behindhand  in 
the  race.  Even  the  American  occupation  and  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Rhineland  High  Commission  have  not  gal- 
vanised it  into  life.  Since  the  ratification  of  peace  the 
Rhineland  High  Commission,  one  of  the  costly  bodies  set 
up  by  the  Treaty,  is  technically  the  governing  authority 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    121 

in  occupied  Germany.  England,  France,  and  Belgium 
are  all  represented  on  it,  but  by  one  of  the  ironies  of  the 
situation,  though  the  Commission  has  its  headquarters 
at  Coblenz  in  the  American  area,  America,  being  inde- 
pendent of  the  Peace  Treaty,  holds  aloof.  The  wish  to 
provide  Germany  with  a  civilian  administration  was  no 
doubt  excellent  in  theory,  but  the  Germans  are  some- 
what puzzled  by  the  anomalous  position  of  a  body  of  this 
character  alongside  armies  of  occupation,  and  still  more 
suspicious  as  to  the  flavour  of  permanence  which  civilian 
administration  suggests.  The  Commission  produces  large 
numbers  of  ordinances,  of  which  it  is  very  proud,  but  it 
is  not  paper  regulations,  however  excellent,  but  the  power 
to  enforce  them  which  matters  in  a  country  under  mili- 
tary occupation.  That  power  rests  not  with  the  Rhine- 
land  High  Commission,  but  with  the  armies.  To  the 
armies  the  Commission  must  turn  when  it  wants  any- 
thing done. 

Administration,  to  be  satisfactory,  must  correspond 
with  the  real  facts  of  any  given  situation.  The  Allied 
Armies  are  in  Germany  as  conquerors,  and  by  right  of 
conquest  only.  No  civilian  government  set  up  under 
such  conditions  can  be  in  a  sound  position,  for  civilian 
government  is  rooted  in  the  consent  of  the  governed — a 
consent  which  is  certainly  not  forthcoming  in  this  case. 
The  long  term  of  military  occupation  imposed  by  the 
Peace  Treaty  is  open  to  very  grave  objection.  Five  years 
coupled  with  conditions  under  which  Germany  could  have 
made  a  real  effort  to  pay  her  indemnity  would  have  been 
reasonable.  Fifteen  years,  the  period  provided  for  in 
the  French  area,  is  very  like  an  attempt  at  annexation. 
Security  is  never  achieved  through  a  regime  of  alien  dom- 


122  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

ination,  and  the  temper  bred  in  turn  by  alien  domination 
destroys  all  hope  of  security.  Occupation  for  a  short 
period  was  not  only  inevitable  but  desirable.  Prolonged 
for  years,  it  is  oppressive  and  mischievous.  This  being 
the  case,  the  presence  of  foreign  gentlemen  in  frock  coats 
and  top  hats  will  not  sweeten  the  unpalatable  fact  of  oc- 
cupation to  the  Boche.  The  officials  of  the  Rhineland 
High  Commission,  many  of  whom  are  soldiers,  appear 
sometimes  in  uniform,  sometimes  in  civilian  clothes;  a 
blending  of  garments  typical  perhaps  of  the  anomalies 
which  beset  the  Commission  in  doing  its  work. 

Meanwhile,  Coblenz  must  benefit  by  the  foreign  influx 
into  the  town.  The  Americans  fly  a  colossal  flag  over  the 
famous  fortress  which  crowns  the  summit  of  Ehren- 
breitstein.  It  is  quite  the  largest  flag  in  the  Occupation. 
The  Stars  and  Stripes  are  no  less  conspicuous  over  every 
public  building  in  American  occupation.  If  the  technical 
position  of  the  United  States  in  Europe  is  a  little  uncer- 
tain at  the  moment,  at  least  there  is  no  doubt  about  her 
flag.  We  English  adopt  a  different  policy,  and  are  not 
given  to  making  our  flag  too  cheap — a  fact  for  which 
some  of  us  are  grateful.  There  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said 
for  the  Zulu  custom  of  not  allowing  your  most  sacred 
things  to  be  spoken  about. 

At  Coblenz  we  left  the  river  to  attack  the  high  land  lying 
between  the  Rhine  and  Wiesbaden.  We  first  went  up  the 
valley  of  the  Lahn  through  Ems  and  Nassau.  Both  towns, 
watering-places  of  a  conventional  and  familiar  type,  were 
at  that  season  of  the  year  deserted,  but  Ems,  with  its 
memories  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  and  the  intrigues 
of  Bismarck,  has  a  painful  interest  of  its  own.  The  Ger- 
mans, with  their  mania  for  monuments,  had  commemo- 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    123 

rated  the  spot  where  the  French  Ambassador  in  1870 
received  an  answer  from  the  Emperor  William  which  was 
the  prelude  to  hostilities.  Is  this  slab  one,  I  wonder,  that 
Republican  Germany  will  care  to  preserve  when  ridding 
itself  of  other  souvenirs  of  the  Hohenzollerns  ? 

Beyond  Nassau  we  struck  up  a  great  plateau  with  won- 
derful views,  and  so  along  what  is  known  as  the  Bader 
Strasse  to  Schwalbach  and  Wiesbaden,  The  high  land 
we  crossed  was  a  continuation  of  the  Taunus  mountains, 
at  the  feet  of  which  Wiesbaden  lies.  The  colouring  was 
wonderful  in  the  evening  light  as  we  motored  along  the 
ridge  of  the  hills.  Field  and  forest  were  bathed  in  a  bath 
of  blue ;  blue  mist  like  some  enchanter's  garment  hung  over 
the  far  distance.  The  rolling  country  at  our  feet  was 
fertile  and  well  cultivated,  but  the  sense  of  space  and  dis- 
tance and  of  mountains  beyond  redeemed  any  sense  of 
sophistication  which  must  result  from  a  too  obvious  agri- 
culture. Beech  woods  abounded,  woods  just  caught  by 
that  moment  of  the  spring  when  the  delicate  green  buds 
begin  to  open  on  the  lower  branches  of  the  trees,  while 
all  is  brown  above,  and  under  foot  lies  the  old  gold  carpet 
of  last  year's  leaves.  Spring  that  week  was  in  the  brief 
but  exquisite  phase  when  she  resembles  a  primitive  Italian 
picture ;  all  the  coming  beauty  foreshadowed  but  none  of  it 
clearly  expressed.  Only  here  and  there  was  the  brown  of 
the  buds  touched  by  the  green  of  the  young  leaves.  The 
call  had,  however,  gone  forth.  Up  every  hillside,  among 
the  russet  company  of  the  woods,  April  waved  her  white 
ensign  of  cherry  and  blackthorn.  I  am  glad  to  have 
travelled  along  the  Bader  Strasse  on  such  a  day  in  the 
fourth  month  of  the  year. 

From  the  beauties  of  nature  to  the  elegances  of  man 


124.  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

was  an  inevitable  step  on  dropping  into  Wiesbaden. 
There  seems  something  very  suitable  in  the  French  oc- 
cupation of  this  attractive  city.  The  French  tempera- 
ment, the  French  genius,  are  more  at  home  here  than  in 
any  other  German  town  I  know.  Wiesbaden  is  less  "echt 
Deutsch,"  more  international  in  its  atmosphere,  than  what 
is  usual  in  the  Fatherland.  It  is  a  fine  town  with  broad 
boulevards  and  a  good  many  shops.  The  large  Kur 
Haus  is  surrounded  by  beautiful  gardens.  German  taste 
frolics,  after  its  usual  fashion,  within  doors  where  gilt 
and  plush  abound  and  everything  is  costly,  vulgar,  and 
comfortable.  But  apart  from  this  lapse  it  is  a  very  at- 
tractive town,  and  the  French  are  fortunate  to  be  housed 
in  it.  The  Occupation  seems  to  work  smoothly,  and  there 
were  no  obvious  signs  of  discontent  among  the  German 
population. 

Diplomatic  relations  were  a  trifle  strained  between  the 
Allies  on  the  occasion  of  our  visit,  Frankfurt  having  been 
occupied  by  the  French  the  week  before.  Over  this  step 
the  English  had  shaken  their  heads.  There  had  been  a 
collision  between  the  French  troops  and  the  people  in  the 
town;  some  shooting  had  taken  place.  We  had  neither 
passes  nor  permits,  but  we  bluffed  our  way  into  Frank- 
furt on  the  Sunday  afternoon  by  the  simple  expedient  of 
going  there.  It  was  no  one's  business  apparently  to  stop 
a  car  in  which  British  officers  were  driving.  We  passed 
through  the  French  sentries  without  being  challenged,  and 
found  ourselves  in  the  town.  Frankfurt  is  a  large  ugly 
city  with  wide  streets  and  solid-looking  buildings.  The 
population  was  out  promenading  in  its  best  Sunday 
clothes.  The  streets  were  crowded,  and  everything  ap- 
peared quite  normal.    French  soldiers  of  course  abounded, 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    125 

and  here  and  there  a  stray  Belgian  was  to  be  seen,  Bel- 
gium having  sent  up  a  few  men  as  a  sign  of  moral  sup- 
port to  France  in  her  enterprise.  We  were  clearly  the 
only  English  in  the  place.  I  wondered  if  these  Frankfurt- 
ers would  take  the  view  that  we  were  the  advance  guard 
of  an  English  detachment.  However,  the  attitude  of  the 
populace  was  quite  polite.  We  went  to  tea  at  the  Carlton 
Hotel,  which  sounded  homelike.  The  big  hall  was  filled 
with  Germans  who  surveyed  us  with  some  curiosity.  But 
the  waiters  and  the  management  tumbled  over  each  other 
in  their  anxiety  to  be  civil.  We  drove  round  the  town 
before  returning  to  Wiesbaden  and  paid  a  pilgrimage  to 
Goethe's  house,  which  unfortunately  was  closed.  At  the 
Opera  House  we  found  a  curious  state  of  affairs :  French 
soldiers  with  machine  guns  crowding  the  steps  of  the 
main  entrance,  while  people  were  going  into  some  per- 
formance through  a  side-door, 

A  feature  of  the  afternoon's  run,  and  not  a  pleasant  one, 
was  the  presence  of  the  French  coloured  troops  in  the 
district.  Technically  the  coloured  troops  had  been  with- 
drawn from  the  town  itself,  but  they  were  in  force  in  the 
suburbs.  Frankfurt  is  a  large  city,  and  its  outskirts 
stretch  for  a  long  distance  into  a  thickly  populated  in- 
dustrial area.  A  Moroccan  battalion  in  brown  jibbahs 
with  red  trimming  and  yellow  tarbouches  were  hardly 
soldiers  whose  presence  we  should  have  welcomed  in 
Birmingham  or  Manchester  had  they  been  introduced  by 
an  occupying  enemy  power.  Large  numbers  of  colonial 
troops  are  used  by  France  in  her  Army  of  Occupation. 
That  their  presence  causes  great  resentment  among  the 
Germans  is  understandable.  France's  case  is  that  her 
population  has  suffered  heavily  owing  to  a  war  forced 


126  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

upon  her  by  Germany,  and  that,  with  a  French  man-power 
depleted  and  weary,  a  large  colonial  army  is  a  necessity. 
Whatever  the  necessity,  it  is  very  unfortunate  that  col- 
oured troops  should  be  introduced  into  a  country  where 
the  complications  of  black  and  yellow  races  are  unknown. 
WHiite  men  do  not  take  kindly  in  European  towns  to  being 
policed  by  Africans  or  Asiatics.  An  occupying  army 
presents  moral  problems  of  sufficient  difficulty  without 
any  gratuitous  additions  caused  by  the  introduction  of 
Senegalese  and  Moroccans. 

At  the  same  time,  so  far  as  outrages  are  concerned,  a 
great  deal  of  exaggeration  has  taken  place  about  the 
French  employment  of  these  troops.  Undesirable  though 
the  presence  of  black  or  coloured  men  in  the  cities  of 
Central  Europe,  I  have  no  reason  to  think  that  they  have 
been  conspicuous  for  bad  or  immoral  behaviour.  Ger- 
mans have  admitted  as  much  to  me.  They  hate  the  use 
of  the  black  troops,  but  the  objection  is  one  based  on 
general  principle,  not  on  specific  crimes.  Naturally  press- 
men and  publicists  work  the  olack-troops  question  for  all 
it  is  worth,  and  feeling  on  the  subject  runs  high.  The 
Germans  lose  no  opportunity  of  exploiting  any  opening 
presented  by  mistakes  in  Allied  policy.  But  exaggera- 
tion is  always  a  boomerang  and  recoils  on  the  head  of 
those  who  use  it. 

The  following  day  in  dripping  rain  we  motored  through 
Mainz  to  Bingen,  and  then  across  the  slate  mountains  of 
the  Hunsriick  and  the  Hochwald  to  Trier  and  the  valley 
of  the  Mosel.  The  fine  Roman  remains,  especially  the 
Porta  Nigra,  lend  great  dignity  and  character  to  latter- 
day  Trier.  The  cathedral,  one  of  the  oldest  churches  in 
Germany,  has  succumbed  to  the  common  disease,  fatal  to 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    127 

its  type,  of  "a  thorough  restoration."  Its  interior  presents 
the  ordinary  bathroom  appearance,  with  concrete  walls 
painted  to  represent  stones,  plus  vile  modern  frescoes, 
which  is  the  hard  latter-day  lot  of  many  fine  old  Roman- 
esque churches  throughout  the  Rhineland,  One  could 
weep  over  the  destruction  of  these  ancient  monuments  and 
the  clumsy  unseeing  hands  which  have  been  laid  on  them 
at  such  obvious  expenditure,  not  only  of  money,  but  of  a 
most  misguided  care. 

After  Trier  our  troubles  began.  We  were  making 
our  way  to  Metz  via  Saarbriicken.  Crossing  the  hills 
into  the '  Saar  basin  our  car  developed  trouble  with  a 
bearing,  and  at  Mettlach,  some  miles  from  Saarbriicken, 
it  was  clear  our  journey  was  temporarily  at  an  end.  Saar- 
briicken is  not  an  ideal  spot  in  which  to  be  marooned  for 
several  days.  But  all  situations  have  their  compensations, 
and  to  this  accident,  irritating  as  it  was,  I  owe  my  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Saar  valley  and  the  peculiar  state  of 
affairs  existing  there. 

The  situation  in  the  Saar  raises  in  concrete  form  cer- 
tain general  criticisms  of  the  Peace  Treaty  of  which  I 
have  spoken  more  in  detail  in  a  later  chapter.  The  Saar 
provisions  of  the  Treaty^  gave  rise  to  a  good  deal  of 
misgiving  at  the  time  among  some  of  the  most  staunch 
supporters  of  Allied  policy.  Such  misgivings  are  not 
likely  to  be  dissipated  by  any  visit  to  the  area  itself.  The 
wicked  destruction  of  the  French  coal  mines  is  regarded, 
and  regarded  rightly,  as  a  demonstration  of  Prussian  mili- 
tarism at  its  worst.  Particularly  infamous  were  the  eftorts 
of  the  German  military  authorities  during  the  last  weeks  of 
the  war.   Surface  destruction  of  the  mines  was  inevitable 

1  Section  iv.  Part  iii. 


128  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

owing  to  the  colliery  area  lying  across  the  line  of  battle. 
But  the  worst  damage  was  done  in  a  spirit  of  pure  wanton- 
ness and  without  any  military  justification  during  the  re- 
treat of  the  German  Army  in  the  autumn  of  191 8.  It 
was  the  last  kick  of  the  militarists,  and  they  did  their 
work  thoroughly. 

I  am  glad  to  think  that  I  heard  Herr  Sollman,  a  So- 
cialist leader  in  Cologne,  denounce  this  action  in  the 
strongest  possible  terms  amid  the  applause  of  a  large 
audience.  But  the  havoc  done  cannot  be  made  good  by 
words  of  regret,  however  genuine.  That  France  has  the 
right  to  exact  the  very  fullest  material  compensation 
from  Germany  for  damage  done  during  the  war,  es- 
pecially in  this  matter  of  coal,  is  a  proposition  so  self- 
evident  as  hardly  to  require  statement.  Not  only  the  mind 
of  the  Allies  but  the  moral  opinion  of  the  whole  world 
was  ranged  behind  the  claim.  The  German  Social  Demo- 
crats are  equally  prepared  to  admit  the  claim.  Herr  Soll- 
man, in  the  speech  delivered  after  the  Spa  Conference 
to  which  I  have  referred  above,  stated  that  in  view  of  the 
wanton  destruction  of  the  French  mines,  Germany  should 
regard  it  as  a  debt  of  honour  to  deliver  all  the  coal  she 
could  spare  to  France. 

A  Peace,  however,  which  was  aiming,  not  merely  at 
exacting  punishment — punishment  which  must  necessarily 
fall  on  shoulders  quite  different  from  those  responsible 
for  the  original  crime — but  at  the  ultimate  amelioration 
of  racial  and  national  animosities,  would  have  kept  two 
principles  steadily  in  mind.  First,  that  reparation  though 
adequate  should  be  as  prompt  as  circumstances  allowed; 
secondly,  that  reparation  should  have  as  few  ragged  and 
irritating  edges  as  possible — that  it  should  be  organised 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    129 

strictly  on  business  lines  and  not  on  lines  calculated  to 
exasperate  and  inflame  national  feeling.  The  end  in  view 
should  be  adequate  material  payments.  If,  however,  rep- 
aration is  to  be  used  as  an  instrument  of  punishment  and 
diverted  from  economic  to  political  ends,  general  con- 
fusion is  bound  to  result.  What  punishes  does  not  pay; 
payment  means  to  a  large  extent  the  waiving  of  punish- 
ment.   It  is  impossible  to  have  it  both  ways. 

The  Saar  situation  throws  both  of  these  principles  in 
relief.  In  order  to  meet  the  just  claims  of  France,  was 
it  necessary  to  annex  a  purely  German  district  for  fifteen 
years,  to  set  up  a  separate  government  wholly  alien  to  the 
wishes  and  spirit  of  the  people,  and  then  to  call  in  the 
League  of  Nations  to  bless  the  sorry  business?  Are 
these  provisions  of  the  Peace  Treaty  likely  to  further  the 
ostensible  end  in  view,  namely,  the  delivery  of  so  many 
tons  of  coal  annually  from  the  Saar  to  France  ?  On  the 
other  hand,  if  the  occupation  of  the  Saar  is  intended  to 
punish  Germany  for  her  sins,  has  France  any  reason  to 
think,  after  her  own  experience  in  Alsace-Lorraine,  that 
provinces  governed  against  their  will  are  likely  to  be  a 
source  of  comfort  and  pleasure  to  the  power  in  posses- 
sion? The  Saar  has  been  a  solid  German  block  for  cen- 
turies. The  district  is  strongly  German  in  feeling  and 
sentiment.  A  less  encouraging  centre  for  an  experiment 
in  alien  government  could  not  well  have  been  found. 
With  a  mixed  population  the  dubious  game  of  playing  off 
one  element  against  another  can  at  least  be  attempted. 
Even  that  consolation  is  lacking  in  the  Saar.  Out  of 
a  population  of  over  600,000,  the  French  element  is  prac- 
tically nil.     Further,  as  a  method  of  popularising  the 


130  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

League  of  Nations  with  the  Germans,  the  mutual  intro- 
duction via  the  Saar  hardly  seems  a  happy  one. 

I  have  been  in  every  portion  of  the  Occupied  Area  and 
have  had  various  opportunities  of  studying  the  temper  of 
the  people.    Generally  speaking,  that  temper  is  good  in  the 
Rhineland  proper,  and  a  visitor  is  not  conscious  of  any 
obvious  friction.    A  straightforward  military  occupation, 
disagreeable  though  it  may  be  for  the  conquered  race, 
is  laid  down  in  precise  terms.    Every  one  knows  what  to 
expect,  and  the  situation  is  for  the  most  part  accepted 
with  philosophy.     Very  different  were  matters   in  the 
Saar.    You  could  not  walk  down  the  main  street  of  Saar- 
briicken  without   feeling  the  atmosphere   charged  with 
hostility.     The  spirit  of  the  town  was  angry  and  dis- 
gruntled.    Every  German  to  whom  we  spoke  seemed  on 
the  verge  of  an  outburst.  We  found  ourselves  not  a  little 
embarrassed  by  the  obvious  desire  to  confide  grievances 
to  us  about  the  French — grievances  naturally  which  we 
had  no  desire  to  hear.     Hotel  waiters  are  beings  who 
usually  float  with  the  times  and  are  not  concerned  to 
challenge  authority.     But  without  one  word  of  warning 
a  Saarbriicken  waiter,  who  knew  England  well,  broke 
into  words  of  angry  declamation.    How  should  we  Eng- 
lish like  a  foreign  commission  to  come  and  take  a  piece 
out  of  Yorkshire  and  hand  it  over  to  an  alien  govern- 
ment?    Should  we  accept  such  a  state  of  affairs  with- 
out protest:   should  we  be  worth  anything  if  we  did?    I 
retorted  sharply  with  some  remark  about  Alsace-Lorraine, 
but  I  knew  the  ground  was  unsound.    Until  two  wrongs 
make  a  right,  the  Saar  occupation  must  lead  to  many 
searchings  of  heart  among  Allied  nations  who  have  any 
regard  for  consistency  in  political  professions  of  faith. 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    131 

Why  has  the  League  of  Nations  undertaken  this  task? 
Thankless  tasks  the  League  has  no  right  to  shirk ;  a  false 
position  such  as  this  is  another  matter.     The  Treaty  pro- 
vides  for  two  Commissions  under  the  League :    one  a 
Boundary  Commission  of  which  a  British  officer  is  Chair- 
man ;   the   other   a   Governing   Commission   over   which 
a  Frenchman  presides.     The  Boundary  Commission  has 
to  delimitate  the  frontiers  of  the  temporary  state,  and  in 
separating  towns  and  villages,   all  purely  German,  one 
from   another  to  make   the   economic   division   between 
friends  and  relations  as  little  harsh  as  possible.     It  is  not 
desired,  for  example,  that  a  village  should  be  cut  off  from 
its  water  supply,  or  that  workmen  should  be  forced  to 
cross  a  frontier  in  the  course  of  their  daily  toil.     The 
Commission  hears  the  views  of  the  inhabitants,  and  has 
shown  them  every  consideration  in  its  power.     Even  so, 
very  hard  cases  are  bound  to  arise  owing  to  the  homo- 
geneous character  of  the  country.     The  frontier  line  is 
necessarily  arbitrary  and  artificial.    Friends  and  kinsmen 
find  themselves  separated  one  from  another;  villages  di- 
vided  from  their  natural  markets  by  the  barrier  of  a 
French  customs  system. 

For  the  whole  directing  power  in  the  area  is  France; 
everything  else  is  camouflage.  France  supplies  the  occupy- 
ing troops,  France  controls  the  customs  and  the  railways ;  a 
Frenchman  is  head  of  the  Governing  Commission, 
Though  there  are  practically  no  Frenchmen  in  the  Saar, 
French  names  are  being  given  in  some  cases  to  the  towns 
and  villages.  The  mines  have  been  handed  over  absolutely 
to  France  for  fifteen  years.  At  the  end  of  fifteen  years 
the  Saar  inhabitants  may  decide  by  plebiscite  whether  they 
desire  to  be  French,  to  be  German,  or  to  remain  under 


132  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  League  of  Nations.  If  they  elect  to  be  German,  Ger- 
many must  repurchase  the  mines  on  a  gold  basis.  The 
whole  arrangement  is  an  admirable  illustration  of  the 
"heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose"  principle.  But  a  few  brief 
years  ago  we  were  very  insistent  that  \ve  were  fighting  for 
justice  and  right,  and  again  I  ask  what  is  the  League  of 
Nations  doing  in  this  galley? 

The  various  members  of  the  two  Commissions  are 
clearly  desirous  of  dealing  justly  with  the  inhabitants,  but 
it  hardly  seems  possible  for  a  body  of  men,  however 
honourable  and  well  intentioned,  to  overtake  a  position  so 
radically  unsound  in  itself.  The  lines  of  government  for 
the  Saar,  laid  down  by  the  Peace  Treaty,  are  a  premium 
on  friction  and  intrigue.  Also  it  is  very  unlikely  that  this 
fancy  occupation  is  going  to  result  in  a  large  output  of 
coal.  Colliers  are  kittle  cattle,  as  we  all  know,  and  they 
do  not  like  being  irritated.  Nothing  and  no  one  can 
make  them  work  unless  they  choose.  The  occupation  of 
an  enemy  country  is  a  military  act  which  a  war  may  render 
inevitable.  But  military  occupation  as  a  means  to  eco- 
nomic ends  is  a  clumsy  weapon.  Efifective  as  a  threat  in 
the  event  of  non-fulfilment  of  contract,  as  an  agent  of 
production  it  is  the  worst  of  instruments.  The  cussed- 
ness  of  human  nature  comes  into  full  play,  and  people  who 
will  work  hard  to  avoid  an  occupation  become  sulky  and 
inactive  when  handed  over  to  a  conqueror. 

The  eflfort  to  create  a  Saar  state,  definitely  separated 
from  Germany  for  a  term  of  years,  cannot  be  justified  by 
any  of  our  own  professions  during  the  war.  We  have  yet 
to  reap  the  full  fruits  of  the  mistake.  The  new  conditions 
have  mobilised,  of  course,  the  passionate  resentment  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  friction  exists  at  every  turn.     The 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    133 

Germans  lose  no  opportunity  of  giving  all  the  trouble 
they  can.  Whatever  grit  they  can  throw  into  the  machine 
they  throw  with  a  will.  His  words  frequently  pass  be- 
tween the  Governing  Commission  and  the  German  Gov- 
ernment in  Berlin.  The  whole  atmosphere  is  one  of  moral 
ca'  canny  and  obstruction.  It  is  idle  to  blame  the  Germans 
for  making  the  most  of  the  ready-made  grievances  with 
which  they  have  been  presented.  Those  to  blame  are 
the  short-sighted  politicians  of  Versailles  who  could 
imagine  that  such  an  apple  of  discord  as  the  Saar  could 
be  flung  down  in  Europe  without  the  further  embitter- 
ment  of  every  passion  which  it  was  the  first  duty  of  states- 
manship to  allay. 

Could  not  the  coal  to  which  France  has  a  clear  right  be 
obtained  under  simpler  and  better  conditions  than  those 
of  temporary  annexation,  however  much  disguised? 
Would  France  herself  not  have  benefited  by  more  coal  and 
less  friction  ?  When  the  Boundary  Commission  has  done 
its  work  there  will  be  only  one  British  representative  left 
in  the  Saar,  and  there  are  no  British  permanent  officials. 
The  country  is  penned  in  between  Lorraine  and  French 
occupied  territory.  Censorship  of  news  is  strict,  and  the 
inhabitants  are  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  Governing 
Commission.  Unless  members  of  the  League  of  Nations 
bestir  themselves  so  that  the  control  of  the  League  shall 
not  be  an  empty  phrase,  a  great  deal  may  go  on  in  this 
remote  district  which  if  realised  would  be  highly  distaste- 
ful to  the  best  mind  of  the  Allies  themselves. 

Our  personal  experiences  in  Saarbriicken  were  quite 
pleasant.  During  our  troubles  with  the  car  we  received  a 
good  deal  of  helpfulness  from  a  variety  of  stray  people. 
The  erring  machine  had  been  put  on  a  truck  at  Mettlach 


134.  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

and  was  to  come  by  train  to  Saarbriicken.  We  met  the 
train  in  due  course,  but  there  was  no  car.  We  met  other 
trains,  but  nothing  happened.  At  lo  p.m.  we  invaded  the 
signahiian's  box  and  unfolded  our  tale  of  woe.  I  can 
never  say  enough  for  the  real  courtesy  and  kindness  shown 
us  by  the  operator  in  charge.  For  two  solid  hours  till 
midnight  he  telephoned  up  and  down  the  line  trying  to 
discover  the  whereabouts  of  the  truck.  One  station  after 
another  was  rung  up.  "I  have  here  an  English  colonel 
whose  motor  car  broke  down  at  Mettlach  and  who  ar- 
ranged for  it  to  come  on  by  the  evening  train."  Over 
and  over  again  the  opening  phrase  was  repeated  till  I 
knew  it  by  heart.  In  intervals  of  ringing  up  the  various 
stations  our  new  friend  conversed  with  us  amiably.  He 
was  a  demobilised  sailor,  had  been  in  the  Scarborough 
and  Hartlepool  raids  and  had  fought  at  Jutland.  He 
spoke  regretfully  of  the  pleasant  times  in  old  days  spent 
with  the  British  Navy,  especially  at  Kiel,  just  before  the 
outbreak  of  war.  "You  met  them  in  different  fashion  at 
Jutland,  did  you  not?"  I  suggested.  He  raised  his  shoul- 
ders deprecatingly.  He  told  us  that  during  the  Scarborough 
raid  the  attacking  ships  had  been  saved  by  the  fog.  He 
had  also  fought  in  a  U-boat,  but  was  not  to  be  drawn  on 
that  subject,  of  which  he  was  clearly  shy.  "We  had  to 
do  our  duty,"  he  said  briefly.  In  between  our  conversa- 
tions the  telephone  bell  tinkled  gaily,  but  the  night  was 
going  on  and  there  was  still  no  trace  of  the  missing  truck. 
Then  at  last  a  satified  "So"  from  the  telephone  raised 
our  spirits.  A  train  had  just  come  in.  The  car  was  in 
the  goods  yard;  we  could  get  it  in  the  morning.  We 
parted  from  our  good  Samaritan  with  real  gratitude. 
Railway  servants  are  not  an  overpaid  class  in  Germany, 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    135 

but  not  one  penny  would  he  accept  for  the  pains  and 
trouble  taken  on  our  account.  He  was  a  true  gentleman, 
our  Saarbriicken  signalman,  and  when  Germany  rears  a 
few  more  of  his  type  and  kind  she  will  have  less  trouble 
with  her  neighbours  and  find  life  more  pleasant  for  her- 
self. At  the  motor  repair  shop  the  men  worked  with  a 
will  and  repaired  the  car  in  what  seemed  a  surprisingly 
short  time.  Whatever  the  German  upper  classes  may  be, 
the  German  working  man  is  a  very  decent  fellow,  civil, 
well  educated,  hard  working.  Over  and  over  again  the 
same  moral  is  driven  home.  There  are  good  and  bad  ele- 
ments in  Germany.  What  has  the  Peace  Treaty  done  to 
reinforce  the  better  elements? 

The  Saar  basin  in  the  upper  waters  is  highly  industrial- 
ised. The  manufacturing  areas  lie  near  the  source,  a  fact 
which  is  uncommon  in  the  case  of  most  rivers.  The  lower 
waters,  as  they  approach  their  junction  with  the  Mosel 
near  Trier,  flow  through  a  hilly  and  beautiful  country 
purely  agricultural  in  character.  Saargemiind,  Saarbriick- 
en, Saarlouis  are  all  manufacturing  and  colliery  centres. 
Saarbriicken  itself,  a  dirty,  unattractive  town  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants,  is  the  centre  of  the  coal  area, 
which  before  the  war  had  an  annual  output  of  eleven 
million  tons.  Crossing  the  hills  from  Trier  and  journey- 
ing up  stream  to  Saarbriicken,  all  the  grimy  apparatus 
of  mines,  furnaces,  slag  heaps,  etc.,  make  their  appearance 
from  Saarlouis  onwards.  Even  so,  the  small  collieries, 
towns,  and  villages  compared  favourably  with  our  own. 
They  are  not  overcrowded,  and  open  spaces,  fields,  and 
even  orchards  are  to  be  found  breaking  up  the  sordid 
paraphernalia  of  dumps  and  pitheads.  The  natural  fea- 
tures of  the  river  valley  are  beautiful,  and  even  on  the 


136  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

upper  waters  have  not  been  wholly  destroyed.  Woods 
are  preserved  at  many  points.  Here,  as  elsewhere  in  Ger- 
many, industrial  life  has  not  been  allowed  to  get  thor- 
oughly out  of  hand. 

One  feature  at  least  of  the  Saar  valley  impressed  us 
painfully  as  we  motored  back  to  Trier — the  miserable  con- 
dition of  the  children  and  the  appalling  proportion  of 
bandy  legs.  As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  the  effects  of  un- 
derfeeding during  the  war  are  distributed  very  unevenly 
throughout  Germany.  Some  districts  seem  to  have  suf- 
fered little  or  none  at  all.  Not  so  the  Saar,  where,  judging 
by  that  unfailing  test,  the  children,  the  population  must 
have  gone  through  very  hard  times.  I  heard  of  an  in- 
nocent inquiry  of  an  English  child  made  in  the  Saar  area: 
"Mother,  why  do  the  children's  feet  here  turn  in  the 
wrong  way?"  In  the  answer  to  that  question  hes  the 
tragedy  which  has  overtaken  the  child  life  of  our  enemies. 

NOTE 

Since  writing  the  above  impressions  of  the  Saar  in 
April  1920,  there  has  been  serious  trouble  in  that  area. 
A  dispute  arose  at  the  end  of  July  between  the  Governing 
Commission  and  the  German  permanent  officials,  as  to  the 
conditions  of  service  under  which  these  officials  should  be 
taken  over.  Security  of  tenure  is  a  matter  of  jealous 
concern  to  the  Germans,  for  it  is  no  secret  that  France 
is  very  anxious  to  see  the  last  of  some  of  the  existing 
Prussian  officials.  The  latter  are  no  less  determined  to 
resist  any  doors  being  opened  through  which  foreigners 
might  enter.  In  the  opinion  of  the  officials,  the  new  reg- 
ulations rendered  their  position  much  less  secure  than  for- 
merly and  offered  wider  scope  for  dismissal    on    other 


CERTAIN  CITIES  AND  THE  SAAR  BASIN    137 

grounds  than  those  of  efficiency.  The  right  of  combina- 
tion was  also  restricted.  Further,  they  were  required  to 
take  an  oath  of  fidelity. 

The  officials  objected  to  these  provisions,  and  demanded 
that  they  should  be  confirmed  in  all  rights  and  privileges 
in  which  they  were  possessed  on  November  1 1,  19 18.  No 
satisfactory  settlement  of  the  dispute  was  forthcoming, 
and  the  officials  went  on  strike.  Railways,  posts,  tele- 
graphs were  paralysed  throughout  the  area.  This  action 
was  followed  by  a  general  strike  of  the  whole  community. 
The  French  hurried  up  troops.  Saarbriicken  was  pa- 
trolled by  cavalry,  infantry,  machine  guns,  and  tanks. 
House-to-house  searchings  took  place.  Many  people  were 
arrested,  others  left  the  district.  The  Governing  Com- 
mission in  a  proclamation  openly  accused  the  Berlin  Gov- 
ernment of  inciting  the  whole  trouble,  and  of  spending 
large  sums  of  money  for  purposes  of  disloyal  agitation. 
The  Berlin  Government  retorted  by  a  Note  no  less  acri- 
monious. Each  side  charged  the  other  with  intrigue  and 
breaches  of  the  Peace  Treaty.  It  must  always  be  remem- 
bered the  Governing  Commission  represents  the  League 
of  Nations  and  that  the  League  is  involved  in  these  pro- 
ceedings. The  strike  dragged  on  for  a  time  and  then  came 
to  an  end. 

The  position  as  I  write  is  obscure.  The  censorship  in 
the  Saar  is  very  severe.  English  papers  publish  little  or 
no  news  from  the  area.  A  silence  on  the  subject  no  less 
profound  envelops  periodically  the  German  Press.  It  is 
difficult,  therefore,  to  form  any  judgment  as  to  the  rights 
and  wrongs  of  the  dispute  in  view  of  the  limited  material 
available.  But  the  strike  itself  is  a  symptom  of  the  ugly 
spirit  ruling  in  the  Saar  district,  the  dangers  of  which 


138  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

were  obvious  when  we  were  in  Saarbriicken.  Probably 
both  sides  are  right  in  their  charges  of  mutual  intrigue. 
It  is  clear  that  each  Government  has  only  one  desire, 
namely,  to  exasperate  and  hinder  the  other.  Germany 
protests  loudly  against  the  French  attempt  to  change  the 
German  character  of  the  district.  France  retorts  that 
perfidy  and  bad  faith  are  the  true  hall-marks  of  the  Prus- 
sian. All  this  is  inherent  in  the  situation  actually  cre- 
ated, and  if  it  causes  surprise  to  the  creators  of  that  situa- 
tion they  must  be  simple-minded  folk.  The  plan  evolved 
is  one  that  not  only  asks  for  but  demands  trouble,  and  the 
trouble  is  there. 

Practical  administration  becomes  a  nightmare  under 
such  conditions,  and  that  this  particular  nightmare  should 
persist  for  the  fifteen  years  contemplated  by  the  Peace 
Treaty  is  a  prospect  sufficiently  dismal  for  all  who  have 
to  face  the  waking  realities. 


CHAPTER  XI 
FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN 

There  is  something  grim  and  forbidding  about  the  name 
of  Metz.  The  tragedy  of  shame  and  defeat  with  which  it 
was  connected  during  the  Franco-Prussian  War  hangs 
round  it  like  a  sombre  garment.  I  for  one  associated  it 
always  in  my  thoughts  with  a  dark  menacing  fortress, 
the  very  stones  of  which  cried  aloud  the  tale  of  France's 
humiliation  and  the  ruthless  might  of  her  conquering  foe. 
Historical  events  have  the  power  of  lending  their  own 
colour  to  the  names  of  localities  where  great  dramas 
have  played  themselves  out.  Sometimes  the  very  nature 
of  a  place — I  take  three  at  random,  Mycenae,  Blois,  Glen- 
coe — harmonises  completely  with  the  sense  of  tragedy. 
No  one  could  associate  the  shores  of  Lake  Trasimene 
with  the  idea  of  trippers  on  the  beach,  or  the  plains  of 
Borodino  with  swings  and  roundabouts.  Yet  to  this  rule, 
if  it  be  a  rule,  Metz  is  a  complete  exception.  Instead  of  a 
gloomy  fortress  it  is  a  delightful  French  town,  ideally 
situated  in  the  basin  of  the  Mosel.  The  Mosel  breaks 
up  at  this  point  into  several  channels,  and  Metz  disposes 
of  itself  in  somewhat  Venetian  fashion  among  the  various 
branches.  The  main  portion  of  the  town  is  situated  on  a 
low  crest  overlooking  the  stream.  The  crest  falls  away 
to  the  river  below,  gardens,  houses,  and  terraces  clinging 
to  the  slopes.  To  the  west  across  the  plain  rises  a  range 
of  hills.    From  the  vantage  point  of  the  Esplanade — the 

139 


UO  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

beautiful  public  gardens  on  the  terraces  above  the  Mosel 
— the  view  of  the  surrounding  country  is  very  fine.  The 
fortifications  of  Metz,  being  of  the  latest  type,  are  nat- 
urally not  in  evidence.  But  the  distant  hills  which  rise  in 
such  calm  beauty  from  the  plain  are  honeycombed  with 
everything  that  is  deadly  in  modern  military  equipment. 
Villages  and  vineyards  may  be  on  their  surface,  but  the 
hand  of  man  has  been  concerned  there  with  other  mat- 
ters than  those  of  the  plough  or  winepress.  No  traveller 
surely  can  look  at  the  hills  beyond  Metz  without  a  catch 
in  the  throat?  For  through  them  runs  the  road  to 
Gravelotte  and  Mars-la-Tour,  and  so  beyond  to  a  place 
of  glory  and  endurance  greater  than  theirs — Verdun,  shat- 
tered and  destroyed,  but  inviolate  and  unconquered  in 
the  midst  of  her  ruins. 

Few  districts  in  Europe  are  so  important  in  military 
history  as  the  country  which  lies  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Metz.  We  came  by  train  from  Saarbriicken,  our  car 
being  under  repair,  and  nearly  every  mile  of  the  way  had 
been  a  path  of  destiny  for  France  in  1870.  A  French 
customs  official,  not  a  genial  specimen  of  his  kind,  charged 
us  roundly  with  having  contraband  concealed  under  the 
maps  spread  about  the  carriage.  We  assured  him  our 
business  at  the  moment  was  concerned  with  history  and 
geography  and  not  illicit  trading,  and  after  shaking  the 
offending  sheets  he  disappeared  with  an  unfriendly  grunt. 

The  heights  of  Spicheren  are  within  sight  of  Saar- 
briicken. Here  on  August  6,  1870,  was  fought  one  of  the 
early  battles  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War — an  indecisive 
action  which  was  to  prove,  however,  a  strand  in  the  great 
coil  spread  round  the  French  armies.  To  the  east  of 
Metz  lies  the  fateful  battlefield  of  August  14,  when  after 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  l+l 

a  desperate  struggle  centring  in  particular  round  Colom- 
bey  and  Nouilly,  the  French  were  forced  to  give  way  and 
the  German  pincers  began  to  close  in  on  the  doomed  city. 
The  history  of  the  1870  war,  that  tale  of  heroism  and  mis- 
management, is  painful  beyond  bearing  to  read.  It  moves 
with  the  precision  and  inevitableness  of  a  Greek  tragedy — 
France,  so  sound  at  heart,  yet  superficially  so  rotten, 
matched  against  the  supreme  technical  skill  of  a  pains- 
taking people  guided  by  the  wholly  non-moral  purpose 
of  a  Bismarck.  From  the  conflict,  as  it  was  then,  of  the 
iron  with  the  earthenware  pot,  only  one  end  could  result. 
Yet 

"Nor  kind  nor  coinage  buys 
Aught  above  its  rate." 

Germany  in  the  person  of  her  rulers  bartered  in  1870  the 
first  principles  of  justice  and  morality  between  states. 
To-day  she  is  paying  the  price  of  that  moral  treachery  on 
a  level  of  humiliation  to  which  1870  held  no  parallel, 
while  a  ruined  world  also  bears  its  testimony  to  the  eternal 
truth  that,  as  members  one  of  another,  the  sin  and  failure 
of  the  one  involves  confusion  and  disaster  for  all. 

Lorraine  is  a  smiling  land  with  rolling  plains  and  hills. 
Villages,  solid  and  w^ell-built,  lie  among  their  orchards  in 
the  folds  of  the  undulating  fields.  Important  though  the 
mineral  wealth  of  the  province,  agriculture  plays  a  part 
hardly  second  in  value  as  regards  its  resources.  The  rich 
red  soil  is  highly  cultivated,  and  farming  is  carried  on 
with  the  thoroughness  one  associates,  alas,  with  conti- 
nental methods  alone.  The  red-tiled  roofs  of  the  farm- 
houses lend  a  sense  of  warmth  and  colour  to  the  land- 
scape. Especially  beautiful  is  the  contrast  when  the  warm 
madder-coloured  gables  rise  out  of  a  foam  of  fruit  bios- 


142  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

som.  Truly  a  land  to  win  and  to  hold  the  affections  of 
its  children.  To  see  it  for  the  first  time,  no  longer  under 
alien  rule  but  liberated  and  restored  to  the  Motherland, 
was  a  glad  experience  of  travel.  Indefensible  though  the 
German  rape  of  the  protesting  provinces  in  1870,  the  case 
of  Lorraine,  predominantly  and  overwhelmingly  French 
in  population  and  sentiment,  was  perhaps  the  greater  out- 
rage. A  people  annexed  against  their  will  are  not  easy 
citizens  to  handle,  as  for  over  forty  years  French  re- 
sistance passive  and  active  taught  Prussian  officialism. 

Thiers  fought  desperately  for  the  retention  of  Metz  in 
the  peace  negotiations  following  on  the  1870  war.  Bis- 
marck, whose  ends  were  attained  by  the  war  itself,  was 
not  implacable  on  the  subject.  Personally  he  favoured 
the  payment  of  a  larger  indemnity  in  lieu  of  the  city. 
Military  opinion  was  violently  hostile  to  this  proposal, 
and  with  cynical  indifference  the  Chancellor  let  the  sol- 
diers have  their  way.  To  visit  Metz  in  1920  is  to  realise 
how  the  soul  of  the  city  kept  itself  free  and  aloof,  heavy 
though  the  material  yoke  imposed  on  it.  The  town  is 
French  in  every  respect.  The  Germans  have  added  solid 
public  buildings  of  practical  value  in  the  shape  of  an  ex- 
cellent railway  station,  post  office,  banks,  etc.  As  a  ma- 
terial proposition,  Metz  returns  to  France  much  richer 
than  when  torn  away.  But  the  purely  French  character 
of  the  streets  and  houses  defied  all  efforts  of  the  con- 
queror at  any  true  absorption  within  the  German  Reich. 
The  new  buildings  lie,  like  scorned  and  wealthy  parvenus, 
on  the  outskirts.  Within  are  narrow  streets,  tall  houses 
and  shuttered  windows — all  the  indefinable  genre  and  ele- 
gance which  French  taste  and  French  architecture  bring 
with  them.     When  the  hour  of  liberation  came,  Metz 


t 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  143 

reverted  to  her  natural  allegiance  with  as  little  difficulty 
as  a  prisoner  casts  off  some  hated  garment  of  servitude. 

Sign  painters  must  have  driven  a  brisk  trade  after  the 
Armistice.  Not  only  have  all  the  names  of  the  streets  be- 
come French  again,  but  the  names  of  shops  have  under- 
gone a  similar  transformation.  So  hastily  has  the  work 
been  done  in  many  cases  that  the  half -obliterated  Ger- 
man letters  may  be  seen  under  the  new  paint.  Business 
was  clearly  urgent  in  those  early  days  and  the  transfer  of 
names  to  the  winning  side  permitted  of  no  delay. 

The  fine  fourteenth-century  Gothic  cathedral  is  a  great 
adornment  to  Metz,  The  lofty  windows,  slender  and 
austere,  and  the  splendid  glass  still  speak  of  the  soul  of 
the  Middle  Ages  no  less  than  of  the  skill  and  cunning 
hand  of  the  mediaeval  builder  and  craftsman.  Yet  not 
these  abiding  beauties  but  a  freak  decoration  of  the  ex- 
terior is  what  attracts  the  average  traveller  to  Metz 
Cathedral  to-day.  Under  German  rule  the  church  had 
undergone  a  "thorough  restoration,"  ominous  words 
which,  as  I  have  said  elsewhere,  are  the  knell  of  doom  to 
many  a  fine  building  in  Germany.  French  skill  was  ap- 
parently successful  in  staving  off  the  barbarisms  com- 
mon in  the  Rhineland,  and  the  interior  "has  not  suffered. 
But  the  addition  of  a  Gothic  west  portal  in  1903  gave 
William  11.  a  priceless  opportunity  of  masquerading 
among  saints  and  holy  men  on  the  new  fagade.  Such  a 
chance  possibly  did  not  often  come  his  way.  Certainly  he 
availed  himself  of  it  eagerly.  He  appears,  therefore,  on 
the  fagade  in  the  guise  of  the  prophet  Daniel.  The  statue 
is  well  executed,  though  the  sculptor,  whether  or  not  in- 
tentionally, has  endowed  the  prophet  with  a  sinister  ex- 
pression,  especially   when  viewed   from  certain   angles. 


144  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

The  statue  has  been  allowed  to  remain,  but  after  the  ) 

Armistice  the  hands  were   fettered  with  chains,  and  in  ! 

that  felon's  guise  William  ii.  still  surveys  the  cathedral  , 

square  from  under  the  cowl  of  his  prophet's  cloak. 

I  have  referred  in  another  chapter  to  the  problem  pre- 
sented to  Republican  Germany  by  the  redundance  of 
Hohenzollern  statues.  Metz  had  been  endowed  with  more 
than  its  fair  share  of  Prussian  efifigies.     "If  you  do  not  j 

like  your  conquerors,  you  shall  at  least  have  plenty  of  j 

them  too  look  at"  seems  to  have  been  the  principle  adopted. 
Hohenzollerns  major  and  minor  abounded  therefore  in 
every  public  place.  A  huge  equestrian  statue  of  William  i. 
had  been  erected  in  the  centre  of  the  Esplanade.  The 
Emperor,  with  whiskers  of  a  particularly  bristling  and  ag- 
gressive order,  flourished  a  baton  in  the  direction  of  the 
French  border.     It  was  certainly  not  by  accident  that  the  [ 

statue  was  designed  to  look  across  the  hills  to  the  west, 
and  to  convey  a  challenge  to  which  France  on  her  side 
was  not  slow  to  reply. 

Whatever  the  embarrassments  of  a  reformed  Germany 
as  regards  its  former  reigning  house,  naturally  they  did 
not  weigh  with  the  people  of  Metz.  The  inhabitants  after 
the  Armistice  rose  en  masse,  tore  down  the  statues  of  the 
Hohenzollerns,  and  generally  destroyed  every  outer  sym- 
bol of  Prussian  domination.  The  effigy  of  William  i.  was 
overthrown  by  an  excited  crowd,  and  pictures  of  the 
event  show  the  monarch  on  the  ground  while  men,  women, 
and  children  shake  their  fists  at  the  prostrate  form.  The 
plinth,  stripped  of  its  ornaments  and  inscriptions,  was 
allowed  to  remain,  and  with  every  possible  haste  the  tem- 
porary figure  of  a  victorious  poilu  was  erected  in  order 
to  replace  that  of  the  Kaiser.     This  figure  was  no  longer 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  145 

in  situ  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  and  the  pHnth  awaits  its 
permanent  memorial.  The  hard-worked  German  phrase, 
"Von  seinem  dankbaren  Volk,"  is  still  visible  though  half 
effaced  on  the  plinth,  but  on  the  west  side  looking  towards 
Verdun  the  Hohenzollern  devices  have  been  replaced  by 
the  three  electric  words  crisp  with  victory,  "On  les  a." 

We  English,  who  for  centuries  have  never  known  the 
bitterness  of  alien  conquest — among  whom  no  tradition 
even  survives  of  its  sting  and  misery — can  enter  very 
faintly  either  into  the  anguish  or  the  joy  of  countries  con- 
quered and  then  subsequently  redeemed.  Few  stories  of 
the  war  are  more  moving  than  the  tales  told  of  the  entry 
of  the  French  troops  into  Metz  and  Strasbourg.  Inde- 
scribable enthusiasm  prevailed  among  the  French  popula- 
tion. Not  only  were  the  liberating  legions  greeted  with 
garlands  and  banners,  but  weeping  men  and  women  fol- 
lowed the  French  generals  and  prayed  to  be  allowed  to 
kise  their  hands  or  touch  the  hem  of  their  garments. 
On  the  Porte  Serpinoise,  the  ancient  gateway  of  the  city, 
a  long  inscription  has  recently  been  erected  which  tells 
the  tale  of  Metz  in  recent  times  from  the  treachery  of 
Bazaine  to  the  reunion  with  France  in  1918.  About  this  in- 
scription there  is  little  of  the  calm  and  measured  language 
of  the  message  usually  carved  in  stone.  The  words  are 
burning  and  passionate,  torn  from  the  heart  of  suffering, 
turned  though  it  be  at  the  last  to  joy.  That  the  years  of 
"separation  cruelle"  to  which  the  gateway  bears  testi- 
mony were  bitter  indeed  no  one  could  doubt  who  has 
stood  by  the  Porte  Serpinoise  and  read  its  record  of  both 
defeat  and  victory.  But  has  the  world  even  yet  laid  to 
heart  the  moral  of  the  German  seizure  of  these  prov- 
inces?   Has  France  herself,  greatest  of  all  sufferers,  ap- 


U6  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHIN^ 

plied  the  lesson  to  her  own  circumstances?  Coming  to 
Metz  from  Saarbriicken  with  a  vivid  recollection  of  all 
we  had  seen  and  heard  there,  I  turned  from  the  Porte 
Serpinoise  with  an  uneasy  question  in  my  mind.  When 
the  first  enthusiasms  subside  and  the  flowers  and  the 
garlands  have  faded,  the  practical  business  of  life  re- 
mains. The  government  of  a  mixed  population  is  never 
an  easy  task,  and  the  redeemed  provinces  will  make  heavy 
demands  on  the  wisdom  and  generosity  of  France. 

Alsace-Lorraine  was  in  fact  indulging  in  all  the  joys 
of  a  general  strike  at  the  time  of  our  visit.  Post,  tele- 
graph, railway  service,  everything  was  at  a  standstill  the 
day  after  our  arrival.  The  trouble  had  arisen  apparently 
over  the  replacement  of  German  employes,  now  French 
subjects,  by  other  French  workmen.  The  long  and  stub- 
born resistance  offered  by  the  provinces  to  German  rule 
is  sufficient  proof  of  the  healthy  spirit  of  independence 
which  inspires  the  population.  But  even  under  the  new 
order,  the  people  of  Alsace-Lorraine  are  likely  to  show  a 
spirit  no  less  vigorous  in  all  that  concerns  their  local  af- 
fairs. Bureaucratic  interference  even  with  the  German 
side  of  the  population  may  easily  give  rise  to  resentment 
throughout  the  whole  community,  German  bureaucracy, 
heavy  handed  though  it  was,  had  the  merit  of  being  effi- 
cient. French  administration  would  do  well  to  avoid  sit- 
uations in  which  irritated  citizens  begin  to  make  compari- 
sons not  always  favourable  to  those  at  present  in  au- 
thority. 

We  hired  a  car  which  took  us,  or  rather  shook  us,  to 
Verdun.  The  road  crosses  some  of  the  most  famous  of 
the  1870  battlefields,  especially  Gravelotte  and  Mars-la- 
Tour.    The  road  first  climbs  the  lofty  ridge  of  hills  lying 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  14.7 

to  the  west  of  Metz,  on  the  top  of  which  lies  an  open 
plateau.  Fortifications  and  defences  were  obvious  every- 
where. It  was  clear,  from  the  masses  of  barbed-wire 
entanglements  which  we  passed  at  various  points,  that  the 
Germans  had  intended  to  defend  Metz  if  necessary  in  the 
last  war.  Further,  the  road  along  which  we  travelled 
must  have  been  their  main  artery  of  supply  to  Verdun. 
We  saw  the  remains  of  their  light  railways  running  in 
various  directions.  Dumps  of  wire  still  remained  and 
traces  of  dumps  of  ammunition.  The  light  railways  had 
been  ploughed  up  by  the  returning  peasantry.  Yet  as  we 
approached  the  area  of  devastation  an  obvious  question 
arose — why  were  these  railways  not  preserved  for  the  task 
of  reconstruction  and  the  demands  on  transport  recon- 
struction involves? 

We  halted  at  the  famous  ravine  of  Gravelotte,  where 
on  August  1 8,  1870,  the  terrible  struggle  took  place  which 
decided  the  fate  of  Metz.  Here,  as  everywhere  else  on 
the  1870  battlefields,  all  traces  of  the  German  monu- 
ments to  the  dead  have  disappeared.  The  graves  in  the 
cemeteries  were  untouched,  but  the  eagles  had  been 
knocked  ofif  the  monuments.  Unquestionably  the  presence 
of  these  German  memorials  on  land  robbed  from  France 
presented  the  French  Government  with  a  difficult  problem. 
No  doubt  many  of  the  "Denkmals"  were  boastful  and 
vainglorious,  after  the  usual  German  fashion  in  these  mat- 
ters. Clearly  they  had  no  place  on  redeemed  French 
soil.  I  could  not  feel,  however,  the  situation  had  been 
handled  very  wisely  as  regards  the  memorials  to  the  fallen 
soldiers.  Nothing  would  have  given  me  greater  pleasure 
than  to  have  pulled  at  the  rope  which  dragged  William  i. 
from  his  plinth.     The  ignominious  overthrow  of  statues 


148  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

of  kings  and  princes  of  a  ruling  house  so  directly  re- 
sponsible for  the  miseries  of  Europe  is  a  symbol  of  vic- 
tory over  the  evil  principles  for  which  they  stood. 

But  the  soldiers  who  died  doing  their  duty  do  not 
belong  to  the  same  category  as  the  men  who  plotted  the 
war.  Many  of  the  monuments  blown  up  were  merely 
records  of  regiments  who  fought  and  fell,  and  had  their 
historical  value.  Their  destruction  has  caused  great  bit- 
terness among  the  German  section  in  the  province,  and 
no  end  is  served  by  the  further  creation  of  bad  blood  be- 
tween people  who  are  forced  to  live  together.  The  1870 
war  and  its  terrible  consequences  are  not  to  be  wiped  out 
by  blowing  up  a  few  obelisks.  The  man  who  dies  fighting 
bravely  for  his  country,  however  much  duped  as  to  the 
righteousness  of  the  cause  for  w^hich  he  gives  his  life,  has 
a  claim  to  consideration  at  the  hands  of  a  generous  foe. 
The  dignified  way  out  of  the  difficulty  would  have  been 
for  the  French  to  call  upon  the  Germans  to  remove  their 
monuments.  We  felt  this  the  more  on  reaching  Mars-la- 
Tour,  the  scene  of  another  fierce  battle.  The  frontier 
fixed  after  1870  ran  between  Gravelotte  and  Mars-la- 
Tour.  On  the  Mars-la-Tour  side  of  the  frontier  stands 
a  wonderful  French  monument  which  commemorates  the 
heroism  and  tragedy  of  1870.  A  woman  symbolising 
France  holds  in  her  arms  a  dying  soldier,  whose  head  she 
crowns  with  laurel.  But  she  is  in  no  way  concerned  with 
the  agony  gathered  next  her  heart.  Her  eyes  are  fixed, 
not  on  the  dying  man,  but  grimly,  steadily  across  the 
frontier.  She  looks  across  the  hills  of  her  own  lost  prov- 
ince, and  the  fixity  of  her  gaze  conveys  a  spiritual  chal- 
lenge to  that  other  statue  on  the  crest  above  the  Mosel — 
the  statue  of  William  i.  conquering  and  insolent.    Fur- 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  149 

ther,  from  the  hand  of  the  dying  man  falls  a  musket. 
But  two  babes  playing  at  the  woman's  feet  catch  the 
musket  before  it  lies  in  the  dust  and  raise  it  once  more  in 
the  air. 

This  monument,  a  striking  example  of  its  class,  is  ex- 
ecuted with  a  full  measure  of  French  skill  and  artistic 
power.  But  there  cannot  be  the  least  misunderstanding 
as  to  its  meaning.  Every  line  breathes  revenge  and  a 
day  of  reckoning  to  come.  Mars-la-Tour  was  occupied 
by  the  Germans  in  the  first  days  of  the  recent  war.  It 
must,  I  think,  be  put  to  the  credit  of  the  military  authori- 
ties that,  during  the  four  and  a  half  years  that  this 
memorial  was  in  their  power,  no  damage  of  any  kind  was 
done  to  it. 

Gravelotte  and  Mars-la-Tour  are  both  dirty  ramshackle 
villages,  with  middens  out  in  the  street  blocking  the  en- 
trance to  the  houses.  Perhaps  the  inhabitants  of  frontier 
villages  are  inspired  by  a  justifiable  pessimism  as  to  the 
futility  of  building  decent  dwelling-houses.  Certainly 
the  standard  of  life  seems  unusually  low.  Shortly  after 
leaving  Mars-la-Tour  we  began  to  pick  up  occasional  signs 
of  war,  signs  which,  of  course,  multiplied  as  we  entered 
the  plain  of  the  Woevre,  and  began  to  draw  near  the 
ridge  of  hills  to  the  west  on  the  far  side  of  which  Verdun 
lies.  One  battlefield  is  painfully  like  another.  The  de-* 
stroyed  villages  and  desolate  fields  told  the  same  tale  of 
death  and  suffering  which  is  impressed  on  the  long  belt 
of  devastation  running  across  the  Continent.  Yet  to  me 
in  future  a  cowslip  field  will  always  bring  with  it  mem- 
ories of  Verdun.  The  familiar  yellow  flowers  were  grow- 
ing in  sheets  by  the  roadside,  striving,  as  it  were,  pa- 


150  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

thetically  to  throw  the  cover  of  their  freshness  and  grace 
across  the  stricken  land. 

The  interest  of  Verdun,  apart  from  its  heroic  defence, 
Hes  in  the  fact  that  the  line  of  attack  being  very  intensive 
was  relatively  small,  and  owing  to  the  hilly  and  varied 
nature  of  the  ground  it  is  possible  to  visualise  more  or 
less  accurately  the  various  attacks  and  counter  attacks. 
We  approached  Verdun  from  the  south-west,  a  point  from 
which  the  damage  was  relatively  small.  The  whole  of 
the  Verdun  ridge  on  which  the  forts  are  situated  runs 
north  and  south,  and  commands  the  plain  of  the  Woevre 
to  the  east  and  the  valley  of  the  Meuse  to  the  west.  All 
this  district  was  formerly  a  great  forest.  On  the  south- 
ern slopes  we  found  the  trees  practically  intact.  We 
turned  to  the  right  and,  keeping  along  the  top  of  the  ridge, 
had  our  first  view  of  the  valley  of  the  Meuse,  and  Ver- 
dun with  its  twin  towers  lying  far  below  us  in  the  plain. 

Verdun,  never  a  considerable  city,  has  nevertheless 
emerged  into  fame  on  more  than  one  occasion  in  the 
course  of  its  long  history.  It  gives  its  name  to  the  one 
event  of  capital  importance  in  the  evolution  of  modern 
Europe.  The  Treaty  of  Verdun  in  843  may  be  taken  as 
the  starting  point  of  the  long  struggle  between  France 
and  Germany.  Under  this  Treaty  the  united  empire  of 
Charlemagne  was  broken  up  between  his  three  grandsons. 
France  and  Germany  parted  company,  never  to  meet 
again  during  the  course  of  the  next  thousand  years  but 
on  terms  of  fire  and  sword.  Revolutionary  France  offered 
its  own  example  of  frightfulness  at  Verdun.  The  city  was 
taken  by  the  Prussians  in  1792.  The  struggle  was  not 
of  an  embittered  character,  and  some  young  ladies  of  the 
city  not  only  welcomed  the  conquerors  but  presented  them 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  161 

with  sweets.  Fraternising  with  the  enemy  was  not  in- 
cluded apparently  in  the  then  revolutionary  interpretation 
of  fraternity,  and  three  of  the  girls  were  sent  to  the  scaf- 
fold when  the  French  retook  Verdun  after  Valmy.  The 
little  place  sustained  a  siege  of  three  weeks  in  1870,  and 
surrendered  with  the  full  honours  of  war  after  a  gallant 
resistance. 

But  at  Verdun  as  elsewhere  the  scale  of  events  has 
been  flung  utterly  out  of  focus  by  the  recent  struggle,  to 
which  history  has  no  parallel.  The  town  itself  has  suf- 
fered cruelly.  Every  other  house  is  a  ruin.  But  at  least 
it  never  yielded,  never  bowed  the  head  to  the  conqueror. 
How  near,  terribly  near,  the  Germans  came  to  complete 
success,  we  appreciated  better  on  the  spot  than  anything 
we  had  been  led  to  believe  by  the  official  communiques 
issued  at  the  time.  A  discreet  veil  was  flung  over  the  Ger- 
man capture  of  Fort  Douaumont.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
not  only  was  the  fort  taken,  but  the  Germans  penetrated 
for  a  mile  and  a  half  further  westward  beyond  that  point. 
One  remaining  fort  alone  lay  between  them  and  their 
prey.  Heroic  though  the  defence,  it  is  clear  that  but  for 
the  Somme  offensive  and  the  diversion  of  forces  it  entailed, 
Verdun  itself  must  have  fallen. 

Fort  Vaux  and  Fort  Douaumont  are  the  central  points 
of  interest  in  the  defence,  but  every  yard  of  the  district 
is  full  of  poignant  and  tragic  association.  Trees  and  vege- 
tation had  disappeared  before  we  reached  Fort  Vaux, 
The  ground  had  become  a  mere  crater  field.  It  was  al- 
most impossible  to  believe  that  this  blasted  hillside  and 
neighbouring  ravines  had  once  formed  part  of  a  beautiful 
forest.  As  to  Douaumont,  little  of  the  fort  remains  be- 
yond a  heap  of  rubble  and  rubbish.    Imagination  stumbles 


152  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

and  halts  as  to  what  the  bombardment  must  have  been 
which  could  blast  fortress  and  land  alike  out  of  being. 
Still  more  impossible  is  it  to  gauge  the  human  endurance 
which  could  survive  any  experience  so  hideous  as  the 
fighting  which  raged  round  these  key  points.  Just  below 
Douaumont  is  a  trench  where  a  French  platoon  was  over- 
whelmed and  enfiladed  by  German  fire.  The  ground  fell 
in,  burying  the  men  where  they  stood.  The  bodies  have 
not  been  removed,  and  the  tops  of  the  rifles  can  still  be  seen 
sticking  out  of  the  ground.  The  trench  is  enclosed  by 
barbed  wire  to  keep  the  tourist  at  bay,  but  I  hope  that  this 
gruesome  sight  may  not  be  perpetuated  for  the  benefit  of 
the  tripper.  The  tourist  invasion  of  the  battlefields  is  in- 
evitable, but  it  is  intolerable  if  they  bring  with  them  to 
soil  which  is  sacred  anything  of  the  orange  peel  and  gin- 
ger-beer bottle  atmosphere.  Two  or  three  chars-a-bancs 
filled  with  visitors  were  already  on  the  ground,  early 
though  the  season.  However,  they  were  mercifully  cowed 
into  silence  by  the  all-pervading  desolation. 

All  the  hillsides  round  Verdun  are  scarred  with  the 
marks  of  trenches.  Every  name,  every  ridge  in  the  dis- 
trict is  famous.  We  looked  on  a  given  heap  of  ruins  and 
remembered  with  what  anxiety  and  suspense  the  name  of 
this  or  that  obscure  village  filled  half  the  world  a  few 
years  since.  There  was  a  tangle  of  wire  in  many  places, 
though  much  clearance  of  the  battlefield  has  gone  on. 
Here  and  there  the  roots  of  the  unconquerable  trees 
had  begun  to  throw  up  a  sort  of  scrub.  Here  and  there 
coarse  grass  and  coarser  brambles  were  hiding  the  shell 
holes.  But  on  the  hillsides  about  Vaux  and  Douaumont, 
Froide  Terre,  Poivre,  and  Haudromont,  there  was  no 
sign  of  life.     The  subsoil  had  been  blasted  out  of  exist- 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  153 

ence,  and  vegetation  had  not  been  able  up  till  then  to 
reassert  itself. 

The  area  of  destruction  round  Verdun  extends  for  a 
long  distance,  and  the  general  impression  left  by  the  ruined 
villages  is  painful  in  the  extreme.  In  the  area  of  moving 
battle  the  land  is  not  destroyed,  but  the  houses  are  mostly 
in  ruins.  The  task  of  reconstruction  is  formidable  in- 
deed, and  there  were  few  signs  in  April  1920  that  it  was 
being  grappled  with  on  adequate  lines.  People  were  be- 
ginning to  creep  back,  it  is  true,  to  their  ruined  homes, 
but  under  circumstances  which  seemed  very  undesirable. 
The  ruins  had  been  patched  up  in  some  places,  and  the 
owners  were  living  among  them  in  a  state  of  indescribable 
and  insanitary  squalor.  There  were  no  signs  of  a  big 
scheme  of  reparation,  which  should  have  aimed  first  and 
foremost  at  the  scrapping  of  these  small  dirty  centres  and 
starting  new  villages  on  fresh  sites.  The  average  French 
village  is  apt  to  be  a  dirty  place.  The  sanitary  conditions 
left  by  a  bombardment  are  better  imagined  than  described. 

I  cannot  help  feeling  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  dev- 
astated areas  have  a  most  real  grievance  as  regards  this 
question  of  reconstruction.  The  French  Government  has 
wholly  failed  to  deal  with  it  up  to  the  present  on  a  big 
scale.  Progress  has  been  made  with  areas  in  the  north; 
other  districts,  of  which  Verdun  is  an  example,  remain 
practically  untouched.  The  French  complain  that  they 
cannot  get  work-people  or  materials.  I  cannot  say  from 
what  causes  the  deadlock  springs,  but  the  evidences  of 
deadlock  in  the  Verdun  district  are  complete.  One  feels 
this  state  of  affairs  to  be  a  terrible  hardship  for  the  poor 
people  concerned.  One  of  the  reparation  proposals  put 
forward  by  the  German  Government  is  a  scheme  for  re- 


154  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

building  and  re-equipping  the  devastated  areas.  It  ex- 
cites, naturally,  a  chorus  of  disapproval  from  greedy  con- 
tractors and  other  people  who  would  like  the  money  allo- 
cated for  houses,  furniture,  and  implements  to  go .  into 
their  pockets.  But  in  the  interests  of  the  inhabitants — 
surely  the  paramount  interest — any  scheme  which  would 
deal  promptly  with  the  problems  concerned  with  the  re- 
turn to  normal  life  among  the  ruined  villages  should  be 
examined  closely. 

Further,  England  and  America  ought  not  to  miss  their 
opportunities  in  this  respect.  The  movement  for  the  adop- 
tion by  English  centres  of  French  towns  and  villages  is 
wise  and  generous,  and  if  widely  spread  through  the 
United  States  as  well  as  our  own  country  should  result 
in  substantial  assistance  to  the  victims  of  the  war.  The 
basis  of  any  adequate  reparation  scheme  must  be  national. 
But  destruction  so  great  leaves  ample  scope  for  additional 
voluntary  assistance.  It  is  often  whispered — one  of  the 
unfriendly  whispers  which  circulate  in  corners — that  the 
French  are  over-willing  to  let  other  people  shoulder  the 
burthen  of  the  devastated  areas.  Whether  or  not  the 
wealthy  French  could  have  made  greater  efforts  on  behalf 
of  their  compatriots,  the  position  of  England  and  Amer- 
ica in  this  matter  remains  unaffected.  They  cannot  err  on 
the  side  of  over-generosity.  The  sufferings  of  the  poor 
and  humble  in  the  devastated  areas  have  been  atrocious. 
In  so  far  as  we  render  France  every  material  assistance 
within  our  power,  our  position  is  the  stronger  if  from 
time  to  time  we  are  forced  to  cry  halt  about  matters  con- 
cerning her  general  policy.  Between  the  Allies  there  may 
be,  indeed  there  must  be  at  times,  differences  which  are 
fundamental  as  regards  their  outlook  on  post-war  prob- 


FROM  METZ  TO  VERDUN  155 

lems.  But  on  one  point  there  can  only  be  complete  unity 
of  feeling  and  idea — sympathy  for  the  innocent  victims 
on  whom  the  material  brunt  of  the  war  has  fallen  in  its 
most  acute  form;  whole-hearted  desire  to  make  good  the 
losses  endured. 


CHAPTER  XII 
IN  ALSACE 

Never  have  I  appreciated  more  fully  than  during  the 
months  I  have  lived  in  Germany  the  many  advantages  of 
an  island  people.  No  more  detestable  fate  can  exist  than 
to  be  a  border  state  of  mixed  population,  snatched  as 
the  chances  of  fate  and  history  may  dictate  from  one  dom- 
ination to  another.  With  the  unhappy  example  of  Ireland 
before  our  eyes,  we  are  not  lacking  in  experience  of  the 
difficulties  v^^hich  arise  from  the  presence  of  two  races  and 
two  religions  in  one  country.  When  to  these  internal 
differences  are  added  the  ambitions  and  intrigues  of  war- 
ring Powers,  each  hungrily  desirous  of  increasing  its 
coast  at  the  expense  of  its  neighbors,  the  lot  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  debatable  zone  is  seen  to  be  unenviable  in- 
deed. National  self -aggressiveness  is  always  accentuated 
when  unhappily  yoked  with  the  rival  claims  of  another 
stock.  Temperaments  and  points  of  view  may  be  irre- 
concilable, but  each  side  is  forced  to  contend  for  its  daily 
bread  in  the  same  area  and  to  clash  hourly  or  daily  over  the 
task.  The  problem  in  government  presented  by  such  a 
situation  is  at  the  best  of  times  distracting.  When  in- 
flamed by  old  memories  of  grievances  and  suffering,  of 
wrongs  given,  wrongs  endured,  it  becomes  almost  in- 
soluble. Only  a  being  from  another  planet  endowed  with 
infinite  wisdom  might  be  able  to  deal  justly  and  impar- 
tially with  so  great  a  tangle.    But  the  very  fact  that  such 

156 


IN  ALSACE  157 

a  being  would  be  remote  from  the  passions  surging  round 
him,  would  rob  him  of  knowledge  essential  to  their  un- 
derstanding. The  hard-worked  phrase,  self-determina- 
tion, beloved  by  the  sloppy-minded,  never  touches  the 
root  of  real  bi-racial  difficulties.  When  two  sets  of  people 
in  one  place  wish  to  self -determine  themselves  in  opposite 
senses,  what  then?  Only  along  the  lines,  not  of  self- 
aggression,  but  of  loyalty  to  a  common  ideal  of  justice 
and  fair  play,  can  reasonable  men  on  both  sides  grope  to- 
wards some  sort  of  compromise.  But  almost  invariably 
the  actual,  course  of  events  has  been  to  destroy  the  very 
possibility  of  mutual  forbearance.  Hatred,  sinister  child 
of  arrogance  and  injustice,  stifles  men  and  women  within 
the  evil  circle  it  has  forged.  And  the  circle  continues  piti- 
lessly to  revolve,  the  oppressors  of  to-day  being  sometimes 
the  oppressed  of  yesterday,  but,  whichever  side  is  upper- 
most, the  bond  of  hatred  remaining  close  and  unbroken. 

The  German  wrong  done  to  France  in  1870  was  at 
the  same  time  a  supreme  political  blunder.  At  the  time 
of  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  Alsace-Lorraine  had  been 
French  for  nearly  two  hundred  years  and  was  strongly 
French  in  sentiment.  There  was  no  real  case  for  restitu- 
tion to  Germany  on  geographical  or  historical  grounds. 
For  generations  life  in  the  border  provinces  touching  the 
Rhine  had  been  in  a  state  of  flux.  The  rigid  territorial 
demarcations  of  our  own  time  were  then  non-existent. 
Frontiers  and  population  were  both  fluid.  Baedeker, 
whose  national  bias  in  matters  both  of  art  and  history 
makes  the  Handbook  on  Germany  often  very  unreliable, 
writes  of  the  "seizing"  of  Strasbourg  by  Louis  xrv.  and 
the  "restoration"  of  the  city  after  1870.  Cities  and  prov- 
inces, according  to  our  modern  ideas,  were  tossed  about 


158  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

ruthlessly  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  Alsace-Lorraine 
having  become  thoroughly  French  had  no  wish  to  find  it- 
self restored  to  the  Fatherland  and  brought  within  the 
circle  of  Prussian  philanthropic  effort.  Even  Alsace, 
more  predominantly  German  in  origin  than  Lorraine, 
had  in  1870  no  desire  for  other  allegiance  but  that  of 
France.  The  provinces  were  torn,  protesting  and  un- 
happy, from  the  motherland  of  their  adoption,  Bismarck, 
great  and  unscrupulous  genius,  whose  clear-sighted  vision 
in  matters  of  practical  statecraft  was  only  equalled  by  his 
entire  lack  of  moral  sense,  knew  that  a  bad  mistake  had 
been  made,  "I  do  not  like  the  idea  of  so  many  French- 
men being  in  our  house  against  their  will,"  he  remarked 
uneasily.  But  Bismarck,  whose  time  and  thoughts  had 
been  devoted  with  devilish  ingenuity  and  success  to 
manoeuvring  France  into  war  and  putting  her  in  the 
wrong  over  the  process,  had  at  the  critical  point,  so  it 
would  seem,  not  sufficient  energy  left  to  resist  the  an- 
nexationist clamour  of  the  Prussian  generals.  He  yielded 
to  military  pressure,  thus  leaving  an  open  sore  in  the  side 
of  Europe,  which  in  the  end  was  to  involve  his  own  cre- 
ation of  the  new-made  German  Empire  in  ruin. 

To-day  the  provinces  are  French  again,  while  the  con- 
science of  the  world  applauds  a  righteous  act  of  restitu- 
tion. It  would  be  foolish,  however,  to  deny  that  the  re- 
turn of  Alsace-Lorraine  after  forty-seven  years  of  Ger- 
man rule,  with  a  German  population  very  largely  in- 
creased, does  not  present  an  administrative  problem  to 
France  of  exceptional  difficulty.  Lorraine,  as  I  have  said 
elsewhere,  has  kept  its  French  character  very  much 
intact  throughout  the  years  of  oppression.  The  problem 
of  Alsace  is  harder  to  solve. 


IN  ALSACE  159 

My  first  vivid  recollection  of  Paris  as  a  child  is  being 
taken  to  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  to  see  the  figure  of 
Strasbourg  draped  in  her  mourning  weeds.  It  was  with 
real  emotion  that  after  the  Armistice  I  saw  the  statue, 
all  symbols  of  loss  and  servitude  removed,  throned  equally 
with  her  sister  cities  who  encircle  the  great  square.  A 
visit  to  Strasbourg  itself  in  the  dawn  of  its  liberation 
is  a  satisfactory  and  stimulating  experience.  The  many 
vicissitudes  of  its  history  have  left  a  clear  architectural 
mark  on  the  town.  Strasbourg  lies,  a  little  way  removed 
from  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  in  the  centre  of  a  fertile 
plain.  Looking  southwards,  the  line  of  the  Vosges  moun- 
tains stretches  far  away  to  the  right;  equally  far  to  the 
left  across  the  river  runs  the  line  of  the  Black  Forest.  So 
near  the  borders  of  Switzerland,  it  is  something  of  a  sur- 
prise to  find  the  Rhine  flowing  tranquilly  through  this 
wide  flat  land  already  far  removed  from  the  mountains 
of  its  birth.  Before  railways  and  modern  methods  of 
communication  had  made  light  of  rivers  and  mountains, 
Strasbourg,  commanding  the  gap  of  Bel  fort  between  the 
Vosges  and  the  Jura,  was  a  key  point  of  the  highest  im- 
portance. Here  lay  the  broad  and  easy  highway  from 
France  to  Germany.  Along  this  path  swept  Napoleon  in 
his  invasions  of  the  Rhineland.  The  strategical  value  of 
the  position  was  recognised  by  the  Romans,  who  had  a 
camp  at  this  point.  No  less  important  was  it  commer- 
cially in  the  Middle  Ages,  for  thanks  to  its  position,  Stras- 
bourg was  a  necessary  centre  of  exchange  for  the  trade 
of  France,  Germany,  and  Switzerland.  Manufactures 
have  been  developed  on  some  scale  by  the  Germans  since 
1870,  but  it  is  as  one  of  the  great  marts  of  Central 
Europe  that  Strasbourg  has  achieved  its  fame. 


160  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

The  mediaeval  character  of  the  buildings  survives  to 
an  unexpected  extent  in  many  of  the  narrow  streets.  A 
small  canalised  stream,  the  111,  encloses  the  centre  of  the 
town,  and  the  gabled  houses  which  cluster  on  the  water's 
edge,  sadly  insanitary  though  they  must  be,  are  wholly 
satisfying  to  the  eye.  May  health  experts  and  social 
reformers  long  be  kept  at  bay  from  the  old  quarters  of 
Strasbourg!  The  type  of  house  which  lends  unique  char- 
acter to  the  city  has  a  deep-pitched  slanting  roof  broken  by 
small  dormer  windows.  The  red  tiles,  flecked  with  green, 
have  been  mellowed  by  age  into  a  subdued  colour  of  great 
beauty.  The  houses,  with  wide  lattice  windows,  are  often 
decorated  with  wood  carvings,  sometimes  old,  often  re- 
stored. The  gables  which  lend  so  much  character  to  this 
class  of  architecture  are  treated  with  considerable  free- 
dom and  variety ;  the  crow's-foot  gable  introduced  by  the 
Dutch  to  South  Africa  is  not  uncommon  here.  The  beau- 
tiful colour  of  the  tiles  which  glow  and  shimmer  in  the 
sunshine  is  like  a  warm  and  rosy  cloak  flung  over  the 
town.  Flowers  not  infrequently  decorate  the  broad  win- 
dow ledges,  and  give  life  and  colour  to  the  narrow  streets 
and  passages.  Striking  indeed  is  the  framework  of  such 
a  house  for  an  Alsatian  woman  wearing  the  national  head- 
dress with  its  voluminous  black  bows,  when  she  appears  at 
the  window  to  tend  her  geraniums  and  marguerites,  or  to 
pass  the  time  of  day  with  neighbours  in  the  street  below. 
The  influence  of  mediaeval  Germany  on  the  old  streets 
and  buildings  of  Strasbourg  can  be  seen  at  a  glance.  Su- 
perimposed on  this  foundation  is  a  town  essentially  French 
in  character  and  architecture.  Eighteenth-century  France 
has  left  behind  it  the  type  of  high  French  house,  elegant 
and  well-proportioned,  characteristic  of  a  period  at  once 


IN  ALSACE  161 

correct  and  dignified.  It  is  curious  to  notice  how  Stras- 
bourg and  Metz  adopted  a  similar  attitude  to  the  archi- 
tectural improvements  of  the  conqueror.  The  spirit  of 
both  cities  is  identical  in  this  respect.  Like  Metz,  pre- 
1870,  Strasbourg  keeps  itself  to  itself,  aloof  and  reserved, 
within  the  confines  of  the  surrounding  111.  On  the  fur- 
ther banks,  the  modern  German  buildings  encircle  the  old 
kernel  with  all  the  material  comfort  and  ugliness  of  the 
latter-day  German  town.  The  solid  rein  forced-concrete 
houses,  the  large  public  buildings,  the  wide  streets  and 
squares  breathe  a  spirit  from  which  the  older  Strasbourg 
seems  to  remove  the  hem  of  her  garment  with  fastidious 
contempt — "What  mean  ye  by  these  stones?" — and  it  is 
not  fantastic  to  read  the  moral  and  political  struggles  of 
this  oft-disputed  city  of  the  marches  in  the  vivid  contrasts 
of  its  architecture.  Between  mediaeval  and  seventeenth- 
century  Strasbourg  there  is  no  strife.  But  pre- 1870  Stras- 
bourg, humiliated,  aristocratic,  reveals  a  passionate  antag- 
onism towards  the  conquering  parvenu  to  whom  the  city 
owes  its  present  material  prosperity.  The  Kaiser's  palace, 
a  building,  monotonous  and  vulgar,  of  the  type  which  re- 
produces itself  in  a  dozen  German  cities,  adorns  one  of 
the  modern  squares.  As  at  Metz,  the  empty  plinths  of 
destroyed  statues  testify  to  the  passing  of  the  Hohen- 
zollerns.  Allegorical  figures  on  one  or  two  modern  build- 
ings, bereft  of  their  heads,  were  something  of  a  puzzle. 
I  could  only  conclude  that  the  former  reigning  house, 
with  its  mania  for  self -portraiture,  had  disguised  them- 
selves in  such  cases  as  Virtues  or  Graces. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  beauty  of  the  tiled  roofs.  The 
famous  cathedral  built  of  red  sandstone  strikes  a  similar 
note  of  warmth  and  colour.    Incredibly  fine  and  delicate  is 


162  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  work  on  arch  and  buttress ;  too  fine,  too  delicate  per- 
haps, for  ornament  is  surely  at  its  best  in  that  wonderful 
moment  of  Gothic  at  once  austere  and  noble  when  orna- 
ment serves  a  strictly  architectural  end.  The  famous  west 
front  of  Strasbourg  Cathedral,  for  all  the  individual 
beauty  of  its  carving — the  Wise  and  the  Foolish  Virgins 
alone  well  repay  a  long  journey — is  a  decorative  fagade 
entirely  divorced  from  any  architectural  end.  Similarly 
with  the  gossamer-like  tracery  of  the  spire.  The  lines  are 
beautiful,  but  somehow  you  feel  that  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  must  be  stormed  by  more  violent  means  than  those 
of  so  fairy-like  an  inspiration.  Can  such  a  structure 
really  survive  the  next  storm?  The  question  springs  in- 
voluntarily to  the  mind,  and  in  it  lies  a  point  of  reproach. 
It  is  one  you  would  never  ask  yourself  when  looking  at 
the  spires  at  Chartres.  The  fine  apse  of  the  minster  tes- 
tifies to  the  Romanesque  plan  on  which  the  building  was 
begun.  Then  it  was  captured  by  Gothic  in  its  most  airy 
and  fantastic  mood.  It  ranks,  and  ranks  rightly,  among 
the  great  cathedrals  of  Europe.  Yet,  since  buildings  and 
human  beings  tend  to  reproduce  each  other's  character- 
istics in  a  strange  and  intimate  way,  it  leaves  the  impres- 
sion that,  as  may  happen  with  some  character  of  real  value 
and  worth,  its  feet  are  a  little  off  the  ground,  and  so  the 
quality  of  the  whole  suffers.  Ruskin,  who  first  saw 
Strasbourg  when  a  boy  of  fourteen,  writes  in  Prcoterita 
that  with  all  its  "miracles  of  building"  he  was  "already 
wise  enough  to  feel  the  Cathedral  stiff  and  ironworky." 
But  the  high  roofs  and  rich  wooden  fronts  of  the  houses 
excited  and  impressed  him  greatly. 

With  the  great  astronomical  clock,  beloved  of  sight- 
seers, I  was  frankly  a  little  bored.    The  cathedral  is  care- 


IN  ALSACE  163 

fully  closed  at  11.30,  so  that  you  are  forced  to  pay  for  a 
ticket  to  come  in  at  12  o'clock  when  the  twelve  apostles 
and  the  cock  perform.  A  series  of  little  figures  creak  in 
and  out,  while  two  rather  aggressive  Suisses  shout  ex- 
planations and  thrust  picture-postcards  on  the  spectators. 
More  satisfactory  is  the  museum,  where  a  small  collec- 
tion of  pictures,  admirable  for  a  provincial  town,  can  be 
visited.  A  delightful  park  called  the  Orangerie  ministers 
to  those  social  amenities  of  life  the  secret  of  which  is  so 
much  better  understood  on  the  Continent  than  in  Great 
Britain.  The  numerous  cafes  and  beer  gardens  of  the  con- 
tinental town  make  the  partaking  of  food  and  drink — 
especially  of  drink — a  simple  respectable  affair,  wholly 
robbed  of  the  vicious  and  degrading  associations  which  in- 
vest the  liquor  trade  at  home. 

The  crowds  gathered  in  the  cafes  on  a  Sunday  after- 
noon gave  us  a  good  opportunity  of  studying  the  men 
and  women  of  Strasbourg.  I  had  the  impression  of  a 
mixed  type  special  to  itself  and  largely  independent  of 
its  parent  stocks.  It  is  wholly  different  from  that  of  the 
tall  blond  men  and  women  we  see  in  Cologne.  Neither 
is  it  entirely  French.  The  Alsatians  tend  to  be  dark  and 
short,  somewhat  solid  too  in  build,  though  the  unmistak- 
able elegance  of  French  clothes  lends  a  frequent  touch  of 
distinction  to  passers-by  in  the  streets.  Such  elegance  is 
unknown  in  Germany  proper.  Appalling  too  in  its  con- 
fusion of  tongues  is  the  language  spoken :  a  bastard  jum- 
ble of  French  and  German  which  has  ceased  to  have  any 
resemblance  to  either.  You  speak  in  French,  the  people 
reply  in  German;  you  try  German,  only  to  be  countered 
in  the  vilest  of  patois.  In  the  end  I  fell  back  on  English 
as  the  least  unintelligible  of  the  three  languages.    As  re- 


1G4  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

gards  the  difficult  bilingual  question,  I  do  not  know  on 
what  ultimate  policy  the  French  have  decided.  For  the 
moment  both  French  and  German  names  appear  in  the 
streets,  and  public  places  such  as  the  railway  station.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  there  will  be  no  departure  from  this  policy. 
Suppress  a  language,  and  it  flourishes  with  that  zest  and 
vigour  derived  from  persecution  alone.  The  Germans, 
being  stupid  people,  never  learnt  this  lesson  either  in  Po- 
land or  Alsace-Lorraine.  The  French,  as  a  really  intel- 
ligent race,  are  in  a  better  position  to  avoid  what  is  at  all 
times  a  gross  mistake.  The  lessons  of  history  are  usually 
disregarded,  and  it  would  appear  that  politicians  as  a 
body  are  singularly  inept  as  regards  the  application  of  past 
precedents  to  present  events.  Yet  the  great  moral  of  the 
pacification  of  South  Africa  and  the  principles  it  illus- 
trates is  one  on  which  Europe  in  its  present  chaos  would 
do  well  to  reflect. 

The  general  appearance  of  the  town  throughout  Sun- 
day was  merry  and  light-hearted.  Bands  and  processions 
were  the  order  of  the  day.  A  parade  of  ancient  firemen 
during  the  morning  must  have  included  all  the  surviving 
heroes  of  1870.  Young  Alsace  was  bringing  itself  up  no 
less  vigorously  on  Boy  Scout  lines.  Every  organisation 
which  could  march  was  marching  to  a  fanfare  of  trumpets 
and  a  flying  of  flags.  Strasbourg  is  the  stronghold  of 
the  German  section  of  Alsace,  yet  even  among  individuals 
I  did  not  notice  any  appearance  of  discontent  or  hostility. 
The  sullen  black  looks  we  had  seen  in  the  Saar  were  absent 
here. 

The  proposition  in  government,  however,  with  which 
the  French  find  themselves  confronted  is  a  difficult  one. 
The  problem  of  population  is  specially  intricate.    The  Ger- 


IN  ALSACE  166 

man  element  preponderates  considerably  in  Alsace,  but  a 
German  name  may  often  conceal  French  sympathies. 
Every  effort  was  made  by  the  conquerors  after  1870  to 
stimulate  immigration  from  German  stocks  of  whose 
loyalty  there  could  be  no  doubt.  Many  Germans  have 
come  into  the  country  during  the  last  forty  years,  but  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  them  and  the  German  Al- 
satians proper  is  an  impossible  one  to  draw  administra- 
tively. The  type  of  shrill  voice  which  on  all  and  every 
occasion  clamours  for  policies  which  would  aggravate  the 
existing  confusion  of  Europe  is  loud  in  its  demands  that 
the  Germans  should  be  turned  out.  The  French  Govern- 
ment have  had  the  good  sense  up  to  the  present  not  to  pur- 
sue so  mad  a  course.  The  friction  which  has  arisen  over 
the  inevitable  replacement  of  German  by  French  officials 
has  been  a  warning,  no  doubt,  as  to  the  consequences 
likely  to  follow  from  any  attempt  at  wholesale  expulsion. 
During  the  spring  changes  in  personnel  on  the  Alsace- 
Lorraine  railways  led,  as  I  have  mentioned  in  the  previous 
chapter,  to  a  general  strike  in  both  provinces. 

The  question  of  military  service  is  tangled  and  diffi- 
cult. Germany  is  now  free  from  conscription,  a  blessing 
whole-heartedly  appreciated  by  her  w'orking  population, 
Alsace-Lorraine,  on  the  contrary,  has  to  contribute  its 
quota  to  the  French  armies.  Thousands  of  ex-German 
soldiers  have  already  been  called  upon  to  serve  with  the 
French  colours.  The  cruel  fate  of  French  Alsatians,  con- 
scripted by  Germany  and  forced  to  fight  against  France, 
has  harrowed  the  conscience  of  European  public  opinion 
for  many  years  past.  France  must  see  to  it  that  she  does 
not  pursue  a  policy  towards  the  German  Alsatians  which 
will  sooner  or  later  alienate  the  sympathy  of  Europe  from 


166  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

her  as  surely  as  it  was  alienated  from  Prussia.  At  the 
moment  she  holds  all  the  cards  in  her  hand.  She  can 
afford  to  play  the  big  game,  the  generous  game,  which 
is  the  only  one  capable  of  meeting  the  present  situation. 
Forty-seven  years  of  German  bullying  and  efficiency  left 
the  sentiment  of  Alsace-Lorraine  predominantly  French. 
The  rape  of  the  provinces  had  long  been  regarded  as  an 
injury  to  the  comity  of  nations.  Outside  the  Central 
Empires  and  their  adherents  the  whole  world  rejoiced 
with  France  in  the  hour  of  restitution.  Now  she  has 
exchanged  the  position  of  the  person  wronged,  to  that 
of  the  person  in  possession,  something  of  romance  and 
s>Tnpathy  evaporates  inevitably.  The  test  is  no  longer 
that  of  sentiment  and  feeling,  but  of  the  hard  facts  of  gov- 
ernment, well  or  ill  handled. 

Under  the  heel  of  the  oppressor,  France  taught  the 
world  how  firm  and  enduring  national  sentiment  can  be- 
come. No  material  benefits  of  Prussian  rule,  considerable 
though  they  were,  could  reconcile  the  Alsatians  to  the 
injury  done  to  their  rights  as  free  people.  Now  that  a 
large  German  population  passes  under  French  control, 
France  will  be  wise  to  give  no  opportunity  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  national  sentiment  among  the  German  Alsations 
as  bitter  as  that  of  the  last  forty  years  among  the  French. 
In  all  that  concerns  the  practical  and  material  organisa- 
tion of  life,  German  efficiency  is  much  greater  than 
French.  They  understand  the  gas  and  water  affairs  of 
life  thoroughly.  France's  advantage  lies  in  the  keenness 
and  admirable  clarity  of  her  spirit,  her  powers  of  wit  and 
of  intuition,  her  fine  sense  in  all  that  concerns  the  heart 
and  mind  of  man.  Wholly  devoid  of  sentimentality,  no 
nation  can  approach  the  French  clearness  of  vision  and 


IN  ALSACE  167 

touch  when  at  their  best.  But  on  the  administrative  side 
the  Frenchman  is  often  less  happy.  The  German  is  pains- 
taking and  very  thorough;  the  Enghshmen  has  a  natural 
instinct  for  finding  a  way  out  of  serious  difficulties 
through  the  application  of  a  rough-and-ready  code  of  be- 
having decently  to  decent  people.  The  Frenchman  is  apt 
to  tie  himself  up  in  red  tape.  A  French  bank  in  Metz 
refused  to  give  us  any  money  on  a  French  draft  especially 
arranged  for  our  tour.  We  were  told  to  call  again  in  a 
fortnight.  A  German  bank  in  Saarbriicken  gave  us  all 
the  money  we  wanted  on  the  draft  scorned  by  the  Metz 
gentlemen,  six  of  whom  were  brought  to  look  at  us  be- 
fore we  were  turned  down.  As  a  method  of  conducting 
business  the  proceedings  did  not  strike  us  as  efficient. 

The  administrative  problem  of  Alsace-Lorraine  can 
only  be  a  difficult  one.  French  bureaucrats  admittedly  can 
be  both  corrupt  and  unwise,  and  it  is  on  the  enduring 
qualities  of  the  French  spirit  that  France  must  draw  if  she 
is  to  make  a  success  of  the  government  of  her  restored 
provinces.  A  true  pacification  of  the  German  elements  re- 
sulting in  a  general  loyalty  to  France  would  be  a  signal 
victory  for  French  statesmanship. 

The  question  of  the  compensating  advantages  presented 
by  Alsace-Lorraine  as  against  the  devastations  in  North- 
ern France,  raises  an  issue  about  which  French  opinion  is 
peculiarly  sensitive.  On  this  delicate  ground  any  English 
writer  is  bound  to  tread  warily.  France  will  never  admit, 
or  permit  it  to  be  said,  that  any  element  of  compensation 
enters  into  the  case.  The  provinces  were  stolen  from  her ; 
now  they  have  been  restored  at  the  cost  of  over  a  million 
French  lives  and  untold  sufferings.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  abstract  justice  and  ideal  right  this  contention  is 


168  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

doubtless  true.  But  it  breaks  down  before  the  humdrum 
questions  presented  by  population,  trade,  revenue.  The 
provinces  were  irretrievably  lost  to  France  and  could  only 
be  regained  at  the  price  of  a  successful  war.  It  must  be 
a  considerable  satisfaction  to  any  friend  of  France  to 
feel  that  the  crater  holes  of  the  devastated  areas  are  at 
least  set  off  by  the  recovery  of  two  rich  and  prosperous 
provinces,  5605  square  miles  in  extent,  with  a  population 
of  1,874,014  people.  The  case  of  France  otherwise  would 
have  been  aggravated  to  a  desperate  degree.  She  at  least 
enters  here  and  now  into  possession  of  an  undevastated 
area,  bringing  with  it  considerable  compensations  in  pop- 
ulation, minerals,  agriculture,  and  all  that  these  imply  as 
regards  trade  and  taxation.  The  provinces  return  vastly 
improved  in  their  material  equipment,  thanks  to  the  Ger- 
man capital  spent  on  them.  The  asset  restored  is  far 
richer  than  the  asset  lost.  The  set-off,  of  course,  is  in  no 
sense  equal  to  what  has  been  destroyed,  but  it  is  a  sub- 
stantial element  in  the  case,  and  one  to  which,  frankly, 
too  little  attention  is  ever  paid  when  questions  of  war 
losses  are  discussed. 

It  is  an  interesting  experience  to  motor  through  the 
Vosges  at  a  point  where  the  line,  so  fiercely  contended  in 
the  north,  peters  out,  so  to  speak,  under  conditions  which 
by  contrast  seem  mild  if  not  actually  ladylike.  We  mo- 
tored to  St.  Die  by  way  of  the  Odilienberg  and  Saales, 
returning  over  the  Col  de  Schliicht  to  Miinster  and  Col- 
mar,  and  so  back  to  Strasbourg.  Our  chauffeur,  an  Al- 
satian, warned  us  we  must  expect  terrible  scenes  on 
reaching  Saales:  since  1870  the  French  frontier.  The 
warning  proved  how  little  experience  he  had  had  of  the 


IN  ALSACE  169 

grim  business  of  war  on  the  main  lines  of  attack  and 
defence. 

The  rampart  of  the  Vosges  falls  away  sharply  to  the 
plain  on  its  eastern  side,  and  from  the  convent  crowning 
the  heights  of  the  Odilienberg  a  wonderful  bird's-eye 
view  exists  of  the  mountains  and  the  plain :  Strasbourg 
and  the  silver  streak  of  the  Rhine  dimly  visible  in  the 
distance,  far,  far  away  beyond,  the  still  dimmer  line  of 
the  Black  Forest  mountains.  The  convent  itself,  a  fa- 
vourite "viewpoint"  for  trippers  to  the  Vosges,  has, 
thanks  to  its  restaurant  and  cafe,  a  curiously  secular  ap- 
pearance. The  good  nuns  apparently  drive  a  brisk  trade 
in  souvenirs  and  picture-postcards,  the  restaurant  cater- 
ing as  much  for  the  needs  of  the  body  as  the  prayers  of  the 
faithful  for  the  soul.  The  wooded  heights  of  the  Vosges, 
sometimes  beech,  sometimes  pine,  varied  by  splendid  scar- 
let patches  of  mountain-ash  berries  at  their  best,  are 
threaded  by  excellent  roads.  In  the  neighbourhood  of 
Saales  we  braced  ourselves,  thanks  to  the  exhortations 
of  the  driver,  to  resume  our  acquaintance  with  the  hor- 
rors of  the  line.  But  a  few  damaged  houses,  and  here 
and  there  a  shattered  tree,  proved  how  lightly  by  compar- 
ison this  district  had  escaped.  Woods  and  fields  were  in 
a  normal  condition,  and  vigorous  efforts  had  clearly  been 
made  to  deal  with  the  shattered  houses. 

The  scenery  of  the  Col  de  Schliicht  is  very  fine.  A 
country  to  be  really  appreciated  must  be  seen  on  foot,  and 
motoring  is  at  best  but  an  unsatisfactory  makeshift  for 
the  busy.  To  the  true  vagabond,  as  Borrow  and  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  understood  the  term,  the  friendly  hills  of 
the  Vosges  must  offer  many  attractions  as  a  wandering 
ground.    Our  time  being  limited,  we  were  grateful  to  the 


170  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

motor  for  the  cinematograph  impression  we  were  able 
to  carry  away.  Fighting  of  a  more  serious  character 
had  taken  place  on  the  Col  de  Schliicht  than  at  Saales, 
It  was  along  this  road  the  French  made  their  original 
thrust  into  Alsace  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  when  for  a 
brief  period  they  occupied  Colmar  in  the  plain  below. 
Driven  back  by  the  Germans  with  heavy  losses,  the  line 
was  stabilised  for  some  years  at  a  point  near  the  head 
of  the  pass.  Even  so  the  unfailing  test  of  the  trees  showed 
that  the  destruction  had  not  been  complete.  Miinster 
at  the  foot  of  the  pass  was  a  heap  of  ruins.  Here  for  a 
time  artillery  fire  must  have  been  heavy.  But  we  passed 
rapidly  out  of  the  zone  of  battle ;  a  great  contrast  in  this 
respect  to  the  plain  of  the  Woevre  where,  mile  after  mile 
before  Verdun  is  reached,  the  aspect  of  the  landscape  along 
the 'road  from  Metz  is  desolate  and  desolating  in  the 
extreme. 

The  agricultural  value  of  the  great  plain  of  Alsace 
must  be  considerable.  The  land  is  rich  and  well  cultivated. 
Corn,  potatoes,  and  beetroot  flourish.  Crops  of  maize 
and  fields  of  tobacco  point  to  the  warmth  of  the  climate. 
Hops  and  vines  are  grown  on  a  scale  which  does  not  indi- 
cate much  enthusiasm  for  the  Pussyfoot  movement.  Hops 
are  trained  on  rather  a  different  principle  from  that  usual 
in  Kent,  and  the  long  trailing  festoons  of  leaves  and 
flowers  languish  one  towards  another  like  so  many  ele- 
gant and  swooning  beauties.  Tobacco  factories  and 
breweries  have  been  established  in  Strasbourg  by  the 
Germans;  engine  works  and  foundries  also  contribute  to 
its  wealth.  But  despite  the  commercial  and  manufactur- 
ing activities  which  have  turned  a  city  of  78,000  people 
in  1870  to  one  of  170,000  in  191 1,  the  strength  of  Alsace 


IN  ALSACE  171 

remains  rooted  in  its  agriculture  and  its  agricultural  pop- 
ulation. Except  Strasbourg,  and  in  a  lesser  degree  Miil- 
hausen,  there  are  no  big  towns.  From  the  land  has  come 
in  the  main  the  brave  spirit  which  carried  the  people 
through  years  of  gloom  and  foreign  domination.  That 
the  same  spirit  will  triumph  over  the  difficulties  of  recon- 
struction must  be  the  hope  of  all  friends  of  France. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS 

German  political  life  is  in  the  main  a  sealed  book  to  the 
British  public.  Many  people  take  but  a  tepid  interest  in 
the  politics  of  their  own  country.  To  grapple  with  tlie 
intricacies  of  parties  and  programmes  in  a  foreign  land 
is  an  effort  quite  beyond  the  will  or  the  power  of  the 
average  citizen.  Yet  Germany  plays,  and  is  bound  to  play 
for  years  to  come,  so  dominant  a  part  in  every  calcula- 
tion and  forecast  made  by  her  neighbours,  that  it  is  of 
considerable  importance  to  try  and  realise  what  forces 
are  at  work  among  her  own  people. 

Constitutional  life  in  Germany  has  had  many  vicissi- 
tudes. When  the  tragic  history  of  our  own  times  comes 
to  be  written,  future  historians  will  probably  regard  the 
failure  of  the  Frankfurt  deputies  in  1848  to  solve  the 
problem  of  German  unity  on  a  democratic  basis  as  the 
most  fatal  date  in  modern  history.  The  unity  which  the 
"Professors'  Parliament"  failed  to  achieve  was  welded 
together  triumphantly  by  Bismarck,  twenty-three  years 
later,  through  blood  and  iron.  To  the  cult  of  blood  and 
iron  Germany  henceforth  dedicated  itself,  and  for  many 
years,  with  striking  success.  But  even  within  the  Empire 
the  system  had  its  challengers,  as  the  spread  of  Socialist 
doctrines   and   the   successes   of   the   Social   Democrats 

172 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    173 

proved.  When  the  military  regime  collapsed  in  defeat 
and  confusion  in  the  autumn  of  191 8,  it  was  to  the  de- 
spised democratic  elements  that  Germany  owed  her  escape 
from  utter  ruin. 

Little  or  no  attention  has  ever  been  paid  to  the  aston- 
ishing feat  of  constitutional  reorganisation  which  was 
carried  through  after  the  flight  of  the  Emperor,  Com- 
plete military  disaster  had  overtaken  the  country;  revolu- 
tion and  anarchy  were  abroad  in  the  land.  Yet  on  the 
morrow  of  these  events  not  only  was  a  Republic  pro- 
claimed, but  a  German  Government  came  into  being 
which  worked  out  a  democratic  constitution  based  on 
universal  suffrage  and  full  ministerial  responsibility  of 
the  cabinet  to  the  elected  representatives  of  the  people. 
The  history  of  parliaments  contains  no  more  surprising 
page.  .Women  were  enfranchised,  lists  of  voters  pre- 
pared, and  within  a  few  weeks  of  the  Armistice,  elections 
were  held  which  brought  into  existence  a  provisional 
National  Assembly  whose  business  it  was  to  carry  on  the 
hard  task  of  government  till  the  first  Reichstag  of  the 
new  Republic  could  subsequently  be  elected.  How  all  this 
was  done  in  the  time  is  a  mystery,  especially  having  in 
mind  the  endless  delays  to  which  our  own  last  Franchise 
Bill  gave  rise,  and  the  difficulties  pleaded  as  regards  the 
revision  of  voters'  lists.  The  temper  of  the  hour  and  the 
mood  of  the  conquering  Allies  did  not  permit  of  one  word 
of  praise  for  a  constitutional  tour  dc  force  carried  through 
under  conditions  of  overwhelming  difficulty.  But  it 
would  be  unjust  and  ungenerous  not  to  recognise  to-day 
with  what  dogged  determination  the  German  democrats, 
inexperienced  and  untried  as  they  were  in  government, 
handled  the  half-foundering  ship  they  were  called  upon 


174  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

to  save.  To  make  a  success  ©f  the  task  was  an  impossi- 
bility under  the  circumstances  for  them  or  for  any  set  of 
men.  But  that  they  kept  the  ship  afloat,  in  view  of  the 
seas  breaking  over  it,  is  Httle  short  of  a  marvel. 

The  man  who  played  a  thoroughly  creditable  part  in 
the  hour  of  collapse  was  Hindenburg.  Unlike  other  dis- 
tinguished members  of  the  ruling  class  he  did  not  run 
away  when  the  game  was  up,  but  stood  by  his  country 
through  the  grim  business  of  defeat  and  surrender.  With- 
out a  shred  of  sympathy  for  the  Republican  Government, 
he  gave  that  government  loyal  assistance  as  regards  the 
withdrawal  of  the  armies.  No  man  in  Germany  to-day 
commands  more  universal  respect  than  the  old  Field- 
Marshall..  Amid  the  flood  of  recriminations  which  Ger- 
man statesmen,  generals,  and  admirals  have  poured  on 
each  other,  Hindenburg  has  displayed  reticence  and  gen- 
erosity which  do  him  entire  credit.  The  inclusion  of  his 
name  in  the  list  of  War  Criminals  is  of  all  Allied  inepti- 
tudes since  the  Peace  perhaps  the  greatest. 

The  National  Assembly  lasted  for  about  fifteen  months. 
In  June  1920  Germany  went  to  the  polls  to  elect  the  first 
Reichstag  of  the  Republic.  Not  the  faintest  interest  in 
the  event  was  taken  by  the  British  public.  Yet  whatever 
the  result,  it  could  only  react  on  the  whole  future  of 
European  reconstruction. 

Current  conceptions  at  home  remain  astonishingly 
crude  as  to  the  position  in  Central  Europe.  The  man  in 
the  street,  brought  up  in  the  true  milk  of  the  word  as 
preached  by  the  Yellow  Press,  is  still  of  opinion  that  Ger- 
many is  as  militant  and  as  threatening  as  ever,  and  that, 
should  we  be  so  foolish  as  to  stop  sitting  on  her  head,  she 
would  promptly  overrun   Europe  again.      Suggest  that 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    175 

Germany  with  her  fleet  sunk,  her  merchant  shipping  con- 
fiscated, her  colonies  lost,  her  army  disbanded,  her  war 
material  surrendered,  her  railway  system  in  ruins,  her 
food  shortage  considerable,  is  hardly  in  a  position  at  the 
moment  to  make  an  unprovoked  attack  on  any  one,  and 
the  said  person  hints  darkly  in  reply  at  hidden  divisions 
on  the  Eastern  Frontier;  at  an  alliance  between  the  Bol- 
shevists and  the  German  Government ;  at  a  military  men- 
ace little  less  serious  than  what  existed  in  1914.  It  is 
surprising  that  people  of  this  type  are  not  more  in  conceit 
with  themselves  after  the  Allied  victory,  and  fail  so  com- 
pletely in  appreciation  of  what  the  conquering  armies  have 
done.  The  German  legions,  perfectly  trained  and 
equipped  after  years  of  preparation,  and  with  the  whole 
resources  of  the  German  Empire  behind  them,  could  not 
achieve  the  preliminary  pounce  on  Paris  in  1914.  Is  the 
present  Republican  Government  in  any  better  position  to 
succeed  where  they  failed?  A  nation  broken  by  hunger 
and  defeat  may  become  a  centre  of  disease,  dangerous  to 
its  neighbours  owing  to  the  poison  spread  through  the 
whole  international  system.  But  any  talk  of  external 
military  adventure,  apart  from  sporadic  insurrections,  is 
absurd. 

The  old  united  Germany  with  its  strong  centralised 
military  government  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  Instead  of 
which  we  have  a  Germany,  weak,  disorganised,  distracted, 
split  into  various  factions  each  at  mortal  strife  with  the 
other.  The  position  is  full  of  danger  and  grave  internal 
crisis ;  it  may  menace  the  foundations  of  European  so- 
ciety, but  the  danger  is  disruptive  and  from  within,  not 
the  menace  of  external  legions.  Political  parties  in  Ger- 
many are  split  up  into  numerous  and  bewildering  sub- 


176  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

divisions.  The  Independent  Socialists  and  Communists 
form  a  group  to  the  extreme  left,  with  more  or  less  Bol- 
shevist ideals.  But,  broadly  speaking,  there  are  two  main 
sections,  the  democratically  minded  people  who  desire  the 
evolution  of  a  peaceful  and  constitutional  republic,  and 
the  reactionaries  who,  while  paying  a  certain  lip-service 
to  democratic  principles,  at  heart  detest  the  whole  busi- 
ness. 

It  will  be  the  eternal  reproach  to  Allied  policy  that  it 
has  done  nothing  whatever  to  help  the  better  elements  in 
Germany  to  consolidate  their  position.  On  the  contrary, 
by  the  intolerable  economic  penalties  of  the  Peace  it  has 
pushed  German  democracy  into  a  slough  of  despond  and 
handed  over  a]l  the  vantage  points  to  its  enemies.  The 
measure  of  the  vast  blunder  committed  in  this  respect 
is  clear  enough  to  any  one  who,  like  myself,  has  had  the 
opportunity  of  attending  political  meetings  held  in  Ger- 
many. To  be  living  in  a  country  torn  by  a  fierce  election 
campaign  and  to  be  taking  no  part  in  the  fray  was  a  novel 
experience  for  me.  The  placards  with  which  Cologne  was 
covered  and  the  heated  articles  in  the  German  newspapers 
made  me,  like  an  old  war-horse,  sniff  battle  from  afar. 
At  least  I  was  anxious  to  try  to  gather  as  a  spectator  how 
German  men  and  women  were  really  feeling  and  thinking 
on  this  critical  occasion.  Political  meetings  have  their 
own  atmosphere  and  tell  their  own  tale,  and  the  opportu- 
nity of  hearing  and  judging  for  myself  was  too  good  a  one 
to  miss. 

I  confess  it  was  with  a  certain  amount  of  trepidation 
that  I  made  my  way  for  the  first  time  into  a  German  pub- 
lic meeting.  Naturally  I  had  no  desire  to  be  recognised 
as  an  Englishwoman,  and,  the  conditions  being  wholly 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    177 

novel,  I  was  not  clear  beforehand  how  far  I  should  be  able 
to  lie  low  and  conceal  the  fact  of  my  nationality.  How- 
ever, seeing  that  the  Social  Democrats  advertised  a  meet- 
ing to  which  women  were  specially  invited,  I  plucked  up 
my  courage,  reflected  on  the  not  infrequent  and  slightly 
chastening  occasions  when  I  have  been  addressed  by  Ger- 
mans in  German,  bought  a  Socialist  paper  which  I  dis- 
played conspicuously,  and  walked  into  the  gathering. 
Neither  then  nor  on  any  subsequent  occasion,  let  me  say, 
did  I  experience  the  smallest  difficulty  in  slipping  in 
amongst  the  crowd  and  hearing  the  proceedings  in  entire 
comfort. 

It  was  a  warm  evening,  and  the  great  hall  of  the  Giir- 
zenich,  the  old  banqueting-room  of  mediaeval  Cologne, 
was  only  half  full.  The  audience — about  equal  numbers 
of  men  and  women — were  well-dressed,  entirely  decorous 
folk.  The  long  hair  and  red  ties  of  orthodox  Socialism 
were  absent.  German  meetings  are  detestably  unpunctual. 
Advertised  generally  for  8  p.m.,  they  seldom  start  till 
twenty  minutes  later,  and  the  audience  meekly  accepts 
conditions  of  delay  which  would  rouse  an  English  meet- 
ing to  fury.  The  principal  speaker  of  the  evening  was 
Fraulein  S.,  of  Hamburg,  a  member  of  the  National  As- 
sembly. At  8.20  a  procession  of  earnest-looking  women 
slowly  mounted  the  platform.  They  wore  coloured 
blouses  and  dark  skirts,  and  their  hair  was  scratched 
back  tightly  off  their  heads — a  true  hall-mark  of  feminine 
virtue  in  all  climes  and  among  all  nations.  The  chair- 
woman had  fortified  herself  with  a  large  dinner-bell,  and 
rang  a  peal,  apparently  to  give  herself  courage,  on  open- 
ing the  proceedings.  Restoration  of  order  was  unneces- 
sary, for  the  audience  sat  in  stolid  silence  on  the  appear- 


178  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

ance  of  the  speakers,  not  even  extending  to  them  the  per- 
functory greeting  with  which  an  Enghsh  audience  heartens 
the  platform  victims  before  the  sacrifice.  No  encouraging 
cheers  greeted  the  advent  of  a  pleasant-looking  lady  who, 
armed  with  a  folio  of  MS.,  made  her  way  to  the  reading- 
desk.  Fraulein  S.  spoke,  or  rather  read,  for  an  hour  in  a 
clear,  cultivated  voice.  She  outlined  the  constructive 
policy  of  the  Social  Democrats  or  Majority  Socialists, 
whose  platform  approximates  to  what  was  known  as  the 
Liberal-Labour  position  in  English  politics.  The  party 
is.  however,  definitely  pledged  to  nationalisation.  The 
speaker  led  off  with  the  blockade,  which  is  the  King 
Charles's  Head  of  every  political  meeting  in  Germany. 
Their  enemies,  she  declared,  accused  the  Social  Demo- 
crats of  bringing  Germany  into  her  present  desperate 
straits.  Not  the  revolution,  however,  but  the  dire  conse- 
quences of  the  blockade  were  responsible  for  the  troubles 
of  the  people.  Fraulein  S.'s  chief  interests  lay  obviously 
in  the  field  of  social  reform.  She  outlined  a  programme 
which  was  strangely  familiar  in  many  respects.  The  un- 
married mother  and  the  question  of  religious  education 
in  the  schools  were  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle.  The 
temper  of  the  meeting,  it  must  be  owned,  was  very  tepid, 
but  the  depressing  silence  was  broken  by  a  few  cheers 
when  these  subjects  were  handled.  Another  old  friend 
appeared  with  Fraulein  S.'s  emphatic  assertion  that  no 
school  teacher  should  be  compelled  to  resign  her  appoint- 
ment on  marriage.  The  lady  then  dealt  at  some  length 
with  finance  and  the  incidence  of  taxation.  A  thoughtful, 
well-expressed  speech — withal  a  trifle  dull. 

The  reading  of  manuscript  in  a  large  hall  has  a  curi- 
ously deadening  effect  on  an  audience,  and  judging  by 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    179 

what  I  have  heard,  the  women  poHticians  of  Germany — 
and  be  it  also  said  many  of  the  men — have  not  as  yet 
learnt  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  tyranny  of  elab- 
orately prepared  lectures.  This  was  noticeable  in  the 
case  of  the  speakers  who  followed  Fraulein  S.  She  was 
succeeded  at  the  reading-desk  by  a  dark,  heavy-browed, 
energetic-looking  girl,  who  infused  a  welcome  note  of  vig- 
our, not  to  say  violence,  into  the  proceedings.  This  young 
woman  was  a  school  teacher  of  obviously  advanced  views, 
and  spoke  well  and  fluently.  She  made  short  shrift  of 
religious  education  in  schools.  Priests  and  catechisms 
vanished  under  her  touch  as  she  flourished  the  Socialist 
banner  and  belaboured  her  political  adversaries  with  a 
series  of  witticisms  which  evoked  rounds  of  applause. 
Yet  she  too  had  a  folio  of  notes,  and  now  and  again  when 
a  word  failed,  a  sudden  pause  in  the  flow  of  oratory,  a 
hasty  turning  of  sheets  showed  that  the  thunder,  effective 
as  it  was,  had  been  carefully  prepared. 

These  little  difficulties  were  still  more  noticeable  in 
the  case  of  the  next  speaker,  an  old  lady  wearing  spec- 
tacles and  a  black  bonnet,  whose  witticisms  (the  drift  of 
which  I  was  quite  unable  to  follow)  delighted  the  audi- 
ence. Her  notes  had  got  mixed,  and  when  she  lost  her 
thread — which  happened  frequently — some  moments  were 
spent  hunting  it.  Quite  undismayed,  however,  by  these 
interruptions,  the  old  lady  held  to  her  task  gallantly.  She 
was  clearly  a  favourite,  and  the  carefully  prepared  jokes 
resulted  in  loud  laughter.  I  was  sorry  to  miss  the  point 
of  these  jests,  but  I  was  left  with  the  impression  that  pub- 
lic meetings  in  Germany,  as  in  England,  are  ready  to  be 
amused  with  very  small  beer.  The  ladies  were  succeeded 
by  one  or  two  men  speakers,  who  all  chanted  the  praises 


180  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

of  the  Social  Democrats  and  introduced  variants  of  an- 
other famiHar  theme — poll  early  and  poll  straight.  After 
this  the  chairwoman  performed  energetically  again  on  the 
dinner-bell — did  any  member  of  the  audience  desire  to 
speak?  Hardly  had  the  sounds  died  away  when  she  de- 
clared the  meeting  over.  I  was  waiting  for  the  real  fun 
of  the  fair  to  begin  with  questions,  but  found  myself, 
with  the  rest  of  the  company,  in  the  street. 

Encouraged  by  this  first  attempt,  I  made  a  round  of  the 
meetings  held  by  the  leading  parties,  gatherings  at  which 
night  after  night  I  listened  to  views  as  wide  asunder  as  the 
poles.  The  proceedings  were  considerably  more  lively 
than  at  the  women's  meeting,  and  on  more  than  one  occa- 
sion feeling  ran  high.  Yet  the  proceedings  were  aston- 
ishingly orderly  as  compared  with  the  uproarious  elec- 
tion meetings  which  are  common  enough  at  home.  In- 
terruptions were  not  of  a  sustained  character,  and  during 
the  campaign  I  saw  no  meeting  broken  up.  I  can  only 
marvel,  however,  at  the  easy  lot  of  a  German  candidate, 
for  questions  and  heckling  play  a  very  small  part  in  the 
campaign.  The  carefully  prepared  conundrums  which 
harass  the  existence  of  the  British  Parliamentary  candi- 
date, the  game  of  thrust  and  tierce,  are  unknown  here.  I 
was  disappointed  by  the  absence  of  the  familiar  figure  in 
the  back  row  who  rises,  waggling  a  minatory  forefinger, 
and  the  words,  "I  want  to  ask  the  candidate,"  etc.  The 
odds  are  against  the  heckler  in  Germany,  for  what  is 
called  the  "discussion"  consists  of  objectors  coming  on  to 
the  platform  and  making  speeches  of  protest,  surrounded 
by  the  candidate  or  candidates  and  their  supporters.  As 
I  have  already  remarked,  meetings  begin  late,  speeches 
are  very  lengthy,  and  by  the  time  the  party  candidates 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    181 

sitting  in  a  row  on  the  platform  have  each  said  his  say  the 
hour  stands  long  after  lo  p.m.,  and  the  audience  begins 
to  go  home. 

Naturally  I  was  specially  interested  in  the  women 
speakers  and  the  general  bearing  of  women  at  these  gath- 
erings. The  impression  made  upon  me  was  that  if  Ger- 
man women  attained  full  political  emancipation  at  a  bound 
through  the  revolution  in  November  191 8,  they  have  al- 
ready laid  a  firm  hand  on  their  new  rights.  Large  num- 
bers of  women  were  present  at  every  meeting  I  attended— 
a  fact  which  made  my  own  presence  possible.  A  fair  pro- 
portion of  women  had  sat  in  the  National  Assembly  (the 
first  provisional  Parliament  elected  after  the  revolution), 
and  were  candidates  for  the  new  Reichstag.  It  is  a  sat- 
isfactory feature  that,  though  the  progressive  feminist 
spirits  are  naturally  more  numerous  among  the  Social 
Democrats  and  Minority  Socialists,  the  various  Conserva- 
tive parties  also  support  women  candidates.  If  the  British 
voters  at  the  last  General  Election  showed  no  mind  of  any 
kind  to  return  women  to  Parliament,  German  women  have 
fared  better.  But  the  difference  in  the  electoral  system 
probably  tells  in  their  favour. 


II 

German  political  organisation  differs  widely  from  any- 
thing with  which  we  are  familiar.  The  small  constituen- 
cies represented  by  one  or  two  members  have  no  existence 
here.  The  country  is  divided  into  large  electoral  areas, 
and  each  party  has  a  list  of  candidates  qualified  for  the 
position  by  the  votes  of  their  respective  supporters.  On 
polling  day  you  are  implored  to  vote,  therefore,  not  for  a 


182  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

person  but  for  a  list,  the  list  being  headed  by  the  name 
of  the  leading  candidate.  A  definite  quota  of  votes  given 
to  a  party  elects  a  member  automatically.  The  personal 
element  in  elections  which  is  so  conspicuous  a  feature  of 
our  own  public  life  has  practically  no  existence  in  Ger- 
many. The  struggle  is  one  of  principles  far  more  than 
of  personalities.  This  state  of  affairs  tells  against  a  can- 
didate of  special  gifts,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  neutralises 
the  unfair  influence  of  the  purse,  and  gets  rid  of  much  of 
the  polite  bribery  which  enters  into  political  life  at  home. 
There  is  no  question  here  as  at  Eatonswill  of  kissing  the 
babies  or  shaking  hands  specially  washed  for  the  occa- 
sion. Further,  areas  are  too  large  to  make  handsome 
subscriptions  to  local  charities  a  factor  in  success.  A 
millionaire  could  not  stand  the  strain  of  subsidising  por- 
tions of  a  province. 

Another  curious  feature  of  a  General  Election  in  Ger- 
many is  the  inadequacy  of  the  Press  arrangements.  The 
papers  supporting  the  various  factions  give  the  list  of 
their  own  candidates,  and  these  lists  appear  on  the  elec- 
tioneering placards  which  are  in  great  evidence.  But  I 
wholly  failed  to  obtain  any  general  list  of  the  candidates 
in  the  Cologne  area,  let  alone  a  list  for  the  whole  country. 
Equally  difficult  was  it  after  the  poll  to  get  a  detailed  list 
of  the  losses  and  gains.  Totals  appeared  but  no  names. 
It  was  necessary  to  hunt  through  a  variety  of  party  or- 
gans to  find  which  of  the  candidates  had  been  qualified  as 
members  by  the  quota  of  votes  given  to  the  party.  Though 
I  spent  my  time  buying  newspapers,  I  was  never  able  to 
find  a  list  setting  out  the  new  Reichstag  in  tabular  form, 
with  parties  and  localities  attached  to  the  various  names. 
Electioneering  literature  was  poor  stuff,  and  the  occasional 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    183 

picture  posters  not  inspiring.  The  Deutschnationale  had  a 
dramatic  placard  of  a  drowning  man  sinking  beneath 
heavy  seas,  to  whom  a  Hfebuoy  with  D.N. P.  is  being 
thrown  as  his  one  chance  of  salvation.  But  the  subject 
of  the  placard  could  hardly  have  thrilled  the  electors. 
Posters  devoted  to  the  general  turpitude  of  the  other  man's 
views  were  common,  and  followed  familiar  lines.  But 
certainly  neither  Press  nor  posters  could  compare  with  the 
organisation  of  the  written  and  printed  word  which  exists 
during  a  General  Election  in  the  United  Kingdom. 

It  was  an  interesting  experience  night  after  night  to 
watch  a  country  groping  its  way  along  political  paths  but 
recently  opened.  The  multiplicity  of  parties  into  which 
Germany  is  split  is  very  confusing  to  a  foreigner.  The 
lines  of  demarcation  in  some  cases  are  hard  to  grasp, 
and  the  political  life  of  the  Republic  would  gain  in  vigour 
and  directness  if  certain  of  the  groups  were  combined 
under  one  banner. 

The  two  main  groups,  right  and  left,  into  which  Ger- 
man political  life  falls  are  split  up  into  various  factions. 
The  Socialist  Party  is  divided  into  a  constitutional  right 
wing,  the  Social  Democrats,  and  a  revolutionary  left  wing, 
the  "Unabhangige"  or  Independent  Socialists.  Since  the 
revolution,  various  parties  have  been  busily  engaged 
changing  their  names,  a  fact  which  does  not  simplify 
the  situation,  as  the  old  ones  still  survive  in  current  con- 
versation. The  former  Liberals — whose  views  have  noth- 
ing in  common  with  Liberalism  in  the  English  sense — are 
included  to-day  in  a  variety  of  Capitalist  and  Conservative 
groups  from  the  Demokraten  (mildly  Liberal  in  our  sense 
of  the  word)  on  the  left  to  the  Deutschnationale  Partei 
on  the  right.     This   last-named  tabernacle   shelters   the 


184  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

Junker  and  Agrarian  elements,  and  is  reactionary  to  the 
core.  But  it  is  less  dangerous  than  the  party  which  has 
risen  into  power  of  late  and  bids  fair  to  be  thoroughly 
mischievous,  namely,  the  Deutsche  Volkspartei.  This 
is  the  party  of  Herr  Stinnes  and  the  "schwer  Industrie." 
It  includes  the  great  manufacturers  and  capitalists,  as 
well  as  large  sections  of  the  Bourgeoisie,  has  ample  funds 
at  its  command,  and  despite  some  perfunctory  patter  about 
democracy,  is  bitterly  anti-democratic  in  feeling  and  out- 
look. These  two  main  divisions  of  the  Socialists  and  the 
Bourgeoisie  face  each  other  with  uncompromising  hos- 
tility. But  the  situation  is  further  complicated  by  a  cler- 
ical element  standing  between  them,  with  which  happily 
our  own  politics  are  untroubled. 

The  fervour  and  depth  of  Catholicism  on  the  Rhine- 
land  has  been  one  of  the  many  surprises  of  Germany  to 
me.  In  the  Rhineland,  therefore,  questions  affecting 
Church  and  State  are  much  to  the  fore,  especially  the 
burning  question  of  religious  education  in  the  schools. 
But  the  cross-correspondences  between  the  Zentrum,  the 
orthodox  Catholic  party,  and  the  other  groups  are  most 
bewildering.  There  are  Christian  Socialists  and  Social- 
ists who  are  very  much  the  reverse.  The  Zentrum  has  co- 
operated for  certain  purposes  with  the  Social  Democrats, 
which  has  resulted  in  a  split  in  its  own  ranks  and  the 
formation  of  a  new  party  of  clerical  extremists  known  as 
the  Christliche  Volkspartei. 

Amid  the  welter  of  parties  two  conclusions  force  them- 
selves on  the  observer.  First,  the  orderly  democratic 
elements  in  Germany  are  having  a  hard  struggle  to  sur- 
vive; second,  it  is  essential  for  the  Allies  to  have  a  re- 
sponsible Government  in  Germany  with  principles  approx- 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    185 

imating  to  those  of  the  democratic  peoples.  To  such  a 
Government  alone  can  they  look  for  the  execution  of 
Germany's  Treaty  obligations.  Yet  they  have  taken 
no  steps  to  secure  this  end.  I  often  think  that  Europe 
will  make  final  shipwreck  over  the  mistaken  idea  of  Ger- 
man military  unity  still  so  firmly  screwed  into  popular 
imagination  at  home.  Could  we  but  grasp  the  profound 
internal  cleavage  of  ideas  and  ideals  in  Germany  itself, 
common-sense,  if  no  higher  consideration,  might  suggest 
the  importance  of  strengthening  the  hands  of  the  only 
party  from  which  we  have  anything  to  hope. 

The  democratic  Government  which  came  into  existence 
at  the  time  of  the  revolution  has  had  an  impossible  task. 
It  was  confronted  by  hunger,  defeat,  despair,  and  the 
miseries  which  resulted  from  the  blockade.  It  was  not  a 
strong  Government — how  could  it  be?  Democracy  is  but 
a  plant  of  struggling  growth  in  Germany.  The  nation 
has  had  no  training  in  self-government,  and  the  efficient 
bureaucracy  which  still  more  or  less  survives  is  steeped  in 
the  old  bad  traditions.  That  under  these  circumstances 
the  new  Government  was  open  to  suspicion  at  every  turn 
is  natural  enough.  A  more  far-sighted  policy,  however, 
inspired  by  some  faith  and  hope  for  the  future  would 
have  realised  that  these  struggling  democratic  ideals,  if 
feeble,  were  sincere  and  would  not  have  withheld  all  help 
from  them.  Also  that  the  powerful  internal  enemies,  the 
revolutionaries  on  the  one  hand,  the  reactionaries  on  the 
other,  were  waiting  their  opportunity  to  destroy  them. 
Such  a  policy,  could  it  have  illumined  the  councils  of 
Versailles,  might  at  least  have  seen  the  folly  of  associat- 
ing the  first  efforts  in  democratic  government  in  Ger- 
many with  rebuffs  and  humiliations  of  all  kinds.     The 


186  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

German  working-man  means  to  stand  by  the  revolution, 
but  hunger  and  general  demoralisation  are  openings  on 
which  the  reactionaries  and  revolutionaries  are  not  slow 
to  seize. 

These  reflections  were  driven  home  to  me  in  a  most 
emphatic  way  at  a  meeting  of  the  Deutsche  Volkspartei 
which  was  addressed  by  a  distinguished  professor  from 
Berlin.  The  Deutsche  Volkspartei  excites  peculiar  wrath 
in  Socialist  circles.  The  Junkers  and  the  Right  Wing  ex- 
tremists, left  to  themselves,  are  not  dangerous.  But  this 
great  Conservative  capitalist  block,  fortfied  by  the  funds 
of  the  big  business  men  and  the  "schwer  Industrie,"  is 
considered,  and  rightly,  a  formidable  adversary. 

The  Professor's  speech  was  in  its  own  way  first-rate. 
From  premises  which  personally  I  detested  he  developed 
his  theme  with  extraordinary  ability,  piling  argument  upon 
argument  with  a  cumulative  force  which  swept  everything 
before  it.  Personally  I  was  very  thankful  it  did  not  fall 
to  my  lot  to  answer  some  of  the  points  scored. 

The  Giirzenich  Hall  was  crowded  on  this  occasion,  and 
the  fashionable  ladies  who  sat  on  the  platform  belonged 
to  a  different  world  from  that  of  the  Social  Democratic 
women  of  an  earlier  meeting.  As  regards  the  masculine 
supporters  of  the  Volkspartei,  I  was  reminded  of  Mr. 
Keynes's  famous  description  of  the  present  House  of 
Commons,  "a  lot  of  hard-faced  men  who  looked  as  though 
they  had  done  very  well  out  of  the  vyar."  This  was  par- 
ticularly the  case  with  the  chairman,  who  had  "schwer  In- 
dustrie" written  all  over  him.  The  Professor's  personal- 
ity was  more  attractive  than  that  of  many  of  his  sup- 
porters— a  grey-haired,  grey-bearded  man,  with  a  fine 
head  and  full  strong  voice.    He  spoke  without  a  note  of 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    187 

any  kind,  never  once  hesitating  for  a  word.  He  dealt 
skilfully  with  occasional  interruptions,  for  the  meeting 
was  not  composed  of  unanimous  supporters. 

The  speech  began  characteristically  with  a  eulogy  of 
Bismarck.  Bismarck  had  been  reproached  for  a  policy 
of  blood  and  iron  and  force.  But  blood  and  iron  and 
force,  not  the  pratings  of  the  democratic  visionaries  of 
the  National  Assembly  at  Frankfurt  in  1848,  had  cre- 
ated and  sustained  modern  Germany.  It  was  the  ab- 
sence of  blood  and  iron  which  was  responsible  for  their 
present  downfall.  Not  that  the  armies  in  the  field  were 
ever  defeated;  Germany's  downfall  sprang  from  the  block- 
ade and  the  fanatical  hatred  of  England.  Yet  not  from 
the  blockade  alone :  all  might  have  been  saved  but  for  the 
revolution  which  had  brought  about  their  final  undoing. 
It  was  the  traitors  from  within,  not  the  enemies  from 
without,  who  had  finally  wrecked  and  destroyed  Bis- 
marck's work.  Social  Democracy  had  been  the  ruin  of 
the  country.  It  had  delivered  the  nation  tied  and  bound 
into  the  hands  of  their  enemies.  Democracy,  what  was 
democracy?  The  firstfruits  of  German  democracy  had 
been  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  with  its  intolerable  burdens. 
Belief  in  democratic  principles;  trust  in  the  professions 
of  democratic  leaders?  The  speaker  laughed  bitterly. 
Had  not  President  Wilson  proclaimed  that  America  was 
fighting  German  militarism,  not  the  German  people  ?  Had 
not  Lloyd  George  said  the  same  thing,  and  that  no  yard 
of  German  soil  was  desired  by  the  Alliance  ?  The  Social 
Democrats  might  believe  these  fables,  on  the  strength  of 
which  they  sold  the  pass  to  the  bitter  enemies  of  the  Fath- 
erland. The  result  was  the  Treaty  of  Versailles.  The 
Socialists  talked  of  a  peace  of  reconciliation,  of  interna- 


188  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

tional  relations,  of  stretching  out  hands  to  the  democra- 
cies in  other  countries.  What  folly  to  trust  to  such  shift- 
ing sands,  which  had  resulted  in  the  German  people  being 
swallowed  up  in  misery.  The  Social  Democrats  had 
promised  them  freedom.  "Freedom,"  said  the  speaker 
with  bitter  scorn;  "are  you  free  in  the  Rhineland?"  No; 
there  was  only  one  way  by  which  a  happier  future  could 
be  reached — the  re-creation  of  Germany  on  strong  nation- 
alist lines;  a  Germany  resting  on  force,  purged  of  demo- 
cratic and  international  follies,  with  her  eyes  fixed  on 
herself  and  the  principles  of  Bismarck  well  to  the  fore 
again.  To  do  this  the  defeat  of  Social  Democracy  and 
Socialism  at  the  polls  was  the  first  essential.  A  Govern- 
ment must  be  returned  which  would  know  how  to  safe- 
guard the  welfare  of  the  Fatherland.  Unceasing  work 
was  an  essential  of  reconstruction;  the  eight  hours'  day 
was  another  colossal  blunder  recently  made.  Here  and 
there  the  speaker  threw  an  occasional  sop  to  the  demo- 
cratic Cerberus.  Perhaps  it  was  true  that  they  had  relied 
a  little  too  much  on  force  alone  in  the  past,  and  had  for- 
gotten the  old  idealistic  teaching  of  the  poets  and  phil- 
osophers. And  again  the  rule  of  bayonets  was  over ; 
government  now  rested  on  the  will  of  the  people — a  good 
old  tag  which  appeared  towards  the  end  of  the  speech. 
If  the  Volkspartei  have  their  way,  how  much  will  shortly 
remain  of  the  will  of  the  people  in  Germany? 

Now  for  an  Englishwoman  sitting  unperceived  and  un- 
recognised among  a  German  audience  this  speech  was  not 
pleasant  hearing.  Naturally,  the  speaker  glided  easily 
over  the  rotten  ice  of  Germany's  responsibility  for  the 
war.  He  had  nothing  to  say  as  to  the  original  crime  of 
German  militarism,  the  real  starting  point  of  his  tale  of 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    189 

woe.  For  him  history  began  with  the  Peace,  an  inde- 
fensible position.  Nevertheless  all  he  had  to  say  on  that 
subject  drove  home  every  doubt  people  like  myself  have 
felt  as  to  the  scrapping  by  the  Peace  of  the  fundamental 
principles  for  which  we  fought  the  war.  The  speech  was 
a  practical  illustration  of  how  the  Treaty  itself  has  played 
straight  into  the  hands  of  the  German  reactionaries,  how  it 
has  brought  democratic  professions  into  utter  contempt, 
how  it  has  made  the  lot  of  a  German  democratic  Gov- 
ernment practically  impossible. 

The  speech  of  the  evening  was  received  with  rapturous 
applause,  though  elements  of  dissent  were  not  unrepre- 
sented. But,  as  I  have  said  before,  German  political 
meetings  are  not  arranged  with  a  view  to  helping  the 
heckler.  It  is  one  thing  to  fire  off  questions  from  the 
body  of  the  hall,  quite  another  to  go  upon  the  platform 
and  make  a  reasoned  speech  of  protest  surrounded  by 
your  enemies.  Even  so  the  "discussions"  are  at  times  suf- 
ficiently lively.  A  nice  old  working-man,  with  clothes  so 
patched  that  the  original  pattern  had  almost  disappeared, 
sat  next  me  in  my  corner.  He  was  obviously  full  of  pro- 
test at  the  speech,  and  obviously  anxious  to  explain  his 
objections  to  me.  But  the  necessities  of  my  incognito 
demanded  strict  silence,  for  my  speech  I  knew  would  be- 
tray me  if  I  became  involved  in  conversation  however  in- 
teresting. So  I  was  forced  to  assume  an  attitude  of 
haughty  aloofness,  much  though  I  regretted  the  latter. 

When  the  Berlin  gentleman  sat  down,  another  prop  of 
the  Volkspartei,  an  elderly  and  spectacled  lady,  advanced  to 
the  reading-desk  fairly  staggering  under  a  load  of  MS. 
"Lieber  Gott!"  said  two  young  men  sitting  in  front  of 
me  when  she  had  said  half  a  dozen  words.    Seizing  their 


190  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

hats,  they  fled  forthwith.  I  bore  with  the  portentous  dull- 
ness of  the  lady  for  a  few  minutes  and  then  fled  in  my 
turn.  The  evening  though  interesting  had  not  been  agree- 
able. There  had  been  too  much  truth  in  many  of  the 
taunts  hurled  by  the  Professor  at  the  democratic  pro- 
fessors of  the  Allies  and  their  "faithful  guardianship"  of 
the  principles  of  liberty  and  justice.  The  miserable  state 
of  confusion  to  which  the  pundits  of  the  Peace  Conference 
have  reduced  Europe  is  only  too  apparent  to  any  one 
living  on  the  Continent.  But  to  have  the  moral  enforced 
and  adorned  by  a  German  is  poor  work  for  an  English- 
woman. 


Ill 

One  outstanding  impression  which  I  have  carried  away 
from  political  meetings  in  Germany  is  the  easy  life  of  a 
German  parliamentary  candidate.  So  far  as  I  could  judge, 
these  happy  individuals  saunter  through  a  campaign  with 
relative  ease  and  leisure.  Instead  of  a  hectic  evening  spent 
in  rushing  from  one  meeting  to  another,  candidates  sit  for 
hours  listening  to  one  another's  oratory.  The  absence  of 
heckling  and  questions  makes  the  delivery  of  long  political 
treatises,  which  are  but  mildly  challenged,  a  simple  task. 
There  are  of  course  exceptions,  and  some  meetings, 
notably  Socialist  ones,  announce  a  "discussion,"  at  which 
feeling  runs  high.  But  the  average  German  audience  is 
very  long-suffering,  and  tolerates  bores  and  speeches  of 
inordinate  length  which  would  empty  an  English  gathering. 
The  whole  spirit  of  a  German  meeting  is  hostile  to  inter- 
ruptions.    I  have  heard  a  man  who  interjected  a  harm- 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    191 

less  remark  torn  to  pieces  by  the  speaker,  with  the  obvi- 
ous approval  of  the  audience. 

All  of  which  is  perhaps  a  mark  of  the  political  inex- 
perience of  the  people  and  that  despairing  German  habit  of 
taking  for  granted  what  is  told  them.  Nowhere  more 
than  in  Germany  does  one  thank  heaven  for  the  intracta- 
bility and  argumentativeness  of  the  British  democracy. 
Intellectual  docility  lies  at  the  root  of  many  German 
crimes,  and  along  the  path  of  criticism  probably  lies  the 
w^ay  of  political  regeneration. 

Liberal  and  Conservative  principles  are  much  the  same 
all  the  world  over,  and  the  German  political  parties  which 
embody  them  are  easy  to  recognize  whatever  their  names. 
But  the  clerical  element  which  cuts  across  political  life  in 
Catholic  Germany  has  no  parallel  in  English  politics,  and 
produces  some  curious  eddies  in  the  stream.  The  Zen- 
trum,  the  orthodox  Catholic  Party,  cannot  be  reproached 
with  clericalism  in  the  bad  sense  of  the  word.  German 
Catholicism  includes  mildly  Socialistic  elements,  and  the 
Zentrum  joined  with  the  Social  Democrats  in  forming  the 
present  Government.  It  is  largely  a  working-class  party, 
and  stands  for  what  we  should  call  moderate  Liberal 
views.  But  at  the  same  time  it  is  grounded  in  principles 
of  religious  education  and  that  religious  view  of  the 
State  to  which  modern  democratic  feeling  is  increasingly 
hostile.  Joint  makers  of  the  Coalition,  no  two  parties  at 
the  moment  abuse  each  other  more  heartily  than  the 
Zentrum  and  the  Majority  Socialists.  Despite  its  present 
influence,  it  is  difficult,  therefore,  to  judge  what  the  fu- 
ture holds  for  the  Zentrum.  Meanwhile,  a  certain  sec- 
tion of  zealots  and  intriguers  have  broken  away  from  the 
original  Catholic  Party  to  form  the  Christliche  Volks- 


192  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

partei.  The  seceders  declare  that  by  holding  any  traffic 
with  the  Social  Democrats  the  Zentrum  has  been  faith- 
less to  the  first  principles  of  religious  education.  It  was 
incumbent  on  them,  therefore,  however  heart-breaking  the 
task,  to  withdraw  the  hem  of  their  garments  from  the 
accursed  thing  and  stand  for  Christian  fundamentals  in 
their  original  purity.  Behind  all  of  which  professions 
lurks  a  very  pretty  intrigue. 

I  was  favourably  impressed  at  a  Zentrum  meeting  both 
by  the  audience  and  the  speakers.  I  came  away  feeling 
that  they  were  decent  people  holding  moderate  views  with 
honesty  and  a  certain  liberality  of  view.  Unlike  the 
Deutschnationale  and  the  Volkspartei,  they  do  not  desire 
the  destruction  of  the  Republic,  while  paying  it  perfunc- 
tory lip-service.  One  speaker,  a  priest,  declared  emphati- 
cally against  any  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  and  his 
remarks  were  received  with  cheers.  The  capitalist  element 
was  clearly  unrepresented  on  the  platform.  The  body  of 
the  hall  was  filled  with  the  same  working-class  element 
largely  represented  in  the  crowds  which  flock  on  Sunday 
mornings  to  Cologne  Cathedral.  The  Zentrum  is  a 
strong  party,  and  whatever  electoral  successes  it  may  win 
at  the  polls  are  not  likely  to  be  hostile  to  social  reform  on 
cautious  lines. 

Very  different  is  the  position  as  regards  the  seceding 
body,  that  of  the  Christliche  Volkspartei.  I  attended  a 
meeting  of  the  new  party,  and  fell  among  proceedings 
which  were  refreshingly  lively.  It  was  a  curious  audi- 
ence, generally  speaking  on  a  plane  just  above  working- 
class  level,  but  including  more  well-to-do  and  moneyed 
interests.  They  were  not  a  pleasant  set  of  people.  Some 
looked  fanatics ;  others  undiluted  scamps.     A  large  num- 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMniESSIONS    193 

ber  of  women  were  present  who  cheered  with  great  vig- 
our. Enthusiasm  was  boundless,  but  was  countered  at 
the  back  of  the  hall  by  very  definite  opposition. 

When  the  speakers  and  candidates  took  their  place  on 
the  platform,  cheers  greeted  the  appearance  of  a  sinister- 
looking  priest  with  intrigue  written  all  over  him.  This 
was  the  celebrated  Father  Kastert,  whose  political  ac- 
tivities of  late  have  made  no  small  stir  in  the  Rhineland. 
The  various  candidates  got  to  work,  and  I  have  never 
heard  texts  and  Christian  ideals  hurled  about  a  platform 
with  such  vigour,  and,  according  to  English  standards, 
with  such  entire  lack  of  reserve.  Several  of  the  speakers, 
judging  by  their  appearance,  might  have  engaged  in  shady 
commerce,  which  made  their  declamations  about  the  su- 
preme importance  of  religious  education  the  more  in- 
teresting. 

Shortly  after  the  meeting  began,  a  blind  gentleman, 
venerable  in  appearance  and  with  a  large  white  beard,  was 
shepherded  with  ostentatious  care  on  to  the  platform.  I 
suspected  a  trophy,  judging  by  the  exaggerated  marks  of 
respect  with  which  he  was  received  by  Father  Kastert 
and  his  friends.  He  was,  in  fact,  a  leading  supporter  of 
the  Zentrum,  who  had  seceded  to  the  new  party.  The 
old  gentleman  was  propped  up.  and  when  he  began  to 
speak,  despite  his  tottering  steps  and  shaking  hands,  proved 
a  veritable  Bull  of  Basham.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
and  the  Temptation  in  the  Wilderness  formed  part  of  a 
political  pot-pourri  mixed  up  with  the  misdeeds  of  the 
Social  Democrats.  I  was  sitting  by  chance  among  a  nest 
of  zealots,  who  greeted  these  remarks  with  hysterical 
applause.  A  youth,  still  wearing  field  grey,  suddenly 
jumped  up  in  emphatic  protest.    General  uproar  resulted. 


194  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

"Aus  mit  dem  Kerl !"  shouted  several  ladies  round  me. 
My  spirits  rose  at  the  prospect  of  seeing  some  one  turned 
out  with  German  thoroughness,  but  the  young  man 
thought  better  of  it,  and  sat  down  again  hastily.  The 
chairman  rang  his  bell,  and  after  a  time  the  meeting 
proceeded.  Among  this  curious  company  of  hypocrites 
applauding  principles  clearly  remote  from  their  practice 
I  was  struck  by  one  working-man  candidate,  who  spoke 
with  obvious  sincerity  as  well  as  simplicity.  No  work- 
man, he  said,  could  look  for  joy  in  his  work  unless  that 
work  were  grounded  in  Christ.  Christ  was  the  root, 
Christ  was  the  foundation,  Christ  was  the  workman's 
stay  and  support.  Happily  in  England  we  do  not  discuss 
the  Founder  of  Christianity  on  political  platforms  after 
the  manner  of  this  meeting.  But  in  this  solitary  case  the 
note  of  sincerity  rang  true,  and  I  was  grateful  for  it. 

The  candidates  said  their  say,  and  then  the  real  "turn" 
of  the  evening  began  with  a  lengthy  discourse  from 
Father  Kastert.  Father  Kastert,  despite  all  disclaimers 
to  the  contrary,  is  regarded  as  the  protagonist  of  the 
Rhineland  Republic,  a  matter  about  which  there  are  many 
mutterings  and  murmurings  in  the  Occupied  Area.  As 
such  he  is  an  object  of  abhorrence  to  all  patriotic  Ger- 
mans. Various  elements  enter  into  the  Rhineland  Re- 
public intrigue.  The  annexationist  party  in  France  are 
naturally  in  favour  of  it;  good  Catholics  are  told  that 
self-determination  for  the  Rhineland  means  getting  rid  of 
Prussian  Protestant  officials ;  clericals  are  promised  more 
power  in  a  State  dominated  by  clerical  influences ;  greedy 
financiers  are  heartened  by  the  prospect  of  escaping  any 
way  from  the  full  burdens  of  the  indemnity.  Every  de- 
cent German  looks  on  the  movement  as  one  of  supreme 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    195 

treachery  to  the  Fatherland  in  its  hour  of  defeat  and 
overthrow,  and  on  Father  Kastert  as  the  arch-traitor. 

That  Father  Kastert  and  his  following  are  violently  as- 
sailed is  only  natural.  His  lengthy  speech  on  this  oc- 
casion took  the  form  of  an  apologia.  His  visit  to  Gen- 
eral Mangin  was  only  concerned  with  securing  a  greater 
measure  of  liberty  for  the  Rhineland  during  the  Occupa- 
tion, and  in  hastening  the  close  of  the  Occupation  itself  ; 
away  with  the  abominable  lie  that  he  was  in  French  pay 
and  serving  French  ends ;  all  that  he  sought  was  to  free 
the  Rhineland  from  the  Jewish  influences  rampant  both 
in  Prussia  and  Berlin  and  to  secure  the  fullest  measure 
of  self-determination.  On  the  whole  the  Father,  though 
like  all  priests  a  good  speaker,  proved  less  of  a  personal- 
ity than  I  expected,  I  am  quite  unable  to  judge  how  far 
the  charges  brought  against  him  are  just.  The  Christliche 
Volkspartei  is  the  political  instrument  formed  by  him  for 
carrying  out  his  projects,  whatever  they  may  be.  Father 
Kastert  would  appear  to  draw  his  support  from  singu- 
larly unworthy  elements  in  German  public  life ;  people  who 
are  ready  to  traffic  with  the  enemies  of  yesterday  for  the 
sake  of  such  bread-and-butter  advantages  as  may  be  ob- 
tained from  the  intercourse,  A  bad  peace  opens  the  door 
to  intrigues  of  many  kinds.  But  the  security  of  Europe 
or  France  is  not  to  be  achieved  by  buffer  states  of  the  type 
contemplated  by  the  supporters  of  the  Rhineland  Re- 
public. 

The  French  Chauvinists  who  air  schemes  for  the  an- 
nexation of  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  are  mischievous 
people.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  one  French  person  en- 
dowed with  a  grain  of  good  sense  could  lend  an  ear  to  so 
mad  a  proposal.     Where  Germany  failed  ignominiously 


196  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

in  Alsace-Lorraine,  the  French  are  hardly  likely  to  suc- 
ceed in  the  Rhineland,  But  foolish  talk  of  this  character 
tends  very  appreciably  to  exasperate  and  embitter  German 
public  opinion,  and  brings  new  elements  of  hatred  and 
unrest  into  a  situation  which  was  bad  enough  already. 
Many  Germans  are  convinced  that  France  intends  to 
spring  some  annexationist  coup  upon  them,  and  is  only 
waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  strike  again.  Suspicions 
of  this  kind  destroy  any  hope  of  improved  relations  be- 
tween the  two  countries.  Goodwill  can  be  at  the  best  a 
plant  of  very  slow  and  painful  growth  between  the  na- 
tions. Intrigue  makes  its  existence  impossible.  The 
Rhine  is  German  to  the  core  in  race,  language,  and  senti- 
ment. Even  a  whisper  as  to  the  possibility  of  detach- 
ing it  from  the  rest  of  the  country  is  a  premium  on  a  fresh 
outbreak  of  anger  and  exasperation.  The  unhappy  situa- 
tion existing  in  the  Saar  Basin  may  have  its  compensa- 
tions if  it  provides  an  anti-annexationist  moral  too  strong 
to  be  disregarded. 


IV 

Polling  day  came  and  went.  Despite  a  certain  amount 
of  nervous  chatter  beforehand  of  disturbances  and  riots, 
the  elections  took  place  in  complete  tranquillity.  Not  a 
dog  barked  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  Germany. 
In  Cologne,  at  least,  no  one  would  have  suspected  that 
any  event  of  importance  was  taking  place.  The  ordinary 
Sunday  crowds  promenaded  peacefully,  as  is  their  habit,  to 
and  fro  along  the  Rhine.  The  Independent  Socialists, 
with  singular  delicacy  and  nice  feeling,  plastered  the  outer 
walls  of  the  cathedral  during  the  night  with  their  election- 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    197 

eering  placards,  and  in  gigantic  red  letters  painted  the 
words  "Wahlt  Liste  Fries"  on  the  threshold  of  the  west 
door.  Otherwise  everything  about  the  town  was  quiet 
and  normal. 

As  for  the  result  of  the  Election,  it  was  very  much 
what  was  to  be  expected  under  the  circumstances — a  re- 
sult in  the  highest  degree  unsatisfactory,  if  they  but  knew 
it,  to  the  British  democracy.  The  reactionaries  and  the 
extreme  Socialists  gained  at  the  expense  of  the  moderate 
men.  The  Independent  Socialists — the  Unabhangige — 
negligible  at  the  last  election,  increased  their  strength  four- 
fold, and  instead  of  twenty-two  hold  eighty-one  seats  in 
the  new  Reichstag.  They  swept  the  great  industrial  dis- 
tricts of  the  west,  an  ironical  commentary  on  the  hysterics 
of  the  English  papers  which  insisted  that  the  Ruhr  dis- 
turbances were  a  put-up  job  by  the  German  Government 
destined  to  veil  a  new  attack  on  France.  No  less  striking 
were  the  gains  of  the  Deutsche  Volkspartei,  who  increased 
their  numbers  from  twenty-one  to  sixty-two  seats.  The 
Zentrum  with  sixty-eight  instead  of  eighty-eight  seats 
lost  substantially,  but  while  yielding  ground  was  not 
routed.  The  Christliche  Volkspartei  was  beaten  off  the 
field.  The  discomfiture  of  Father  Kastert  and  the  up- 
holders of  the  Rhineland  Republic  was  complete.  The 
serious  feature  of  the  Elections  was  the  downfall  of  the 
Social  Democrats,  the  largest  and  most  influential  of  the 
three  parties  forming  the  Miiller  Government.  Their 
numbers  fell  from  one  hundred  and  sixty-three  to  one 
hundred  and  twelve.  No  less  complete  was  the  discom- 
fiture of  the  Demokraten  or  Moderate  Radicals — the  left 
wing  of  the  Bourgeois  parties — who  at  the  best  lived 
cramped  and  uncomfortable  lives  between  the  Social  Dem- 


198  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

ocrats  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Conservative  groups  on 
the  other.  Their  numbers  fell  from  seventy-five  to  forty- 
five  seats.  Secrecy  of  the  ballot  does  not  in  Germany 
prohibit  analysis  of  the  totals  polled,  and  the  w^omen's 
vote  taken  as  a  whole  was  clearly  thrown  on  the  reaction- 
ary side.  Gratitude  is  not  a  factor  which  counts  in  politi- 
cal life,  and  the  Social  Democrats  to  whom  the  women  owe 
their  enfranchisement  suffered  severely  at  their  hands. 

On  the  morrow  of  the  poll,  therefore,  the  Miiller  Gov- 
ernment then  in  power  found  that  its  majority  had  dis- 
appeared, and  that  the  Bourgeois  groups  reckoned  to- 
gether were  in  a  majority  as  compared  with  the  two  So- 
cialist parties.  In  the  good  old  days  for  which  many 
Germans  sigh,  nothing  would  have  happened  in  the  seats 
of  the  mighty,  whatever  the  complexion  of  a  Reichstag 
returned  at  a  General  Election.  But  under  the  new  con- 
stitution established  by  the  revolution,  a  Government  in 
power  must  hold  its  authority  from  the  elected  representa- 
tives of  the  people.  Since,  however,  both  the  Zentrum 
and  the  Demokraten  had  been  associated  with  the  Miiller 
Government,  a  political  deadlock  of  great  difficulty  at  once 
arose.  For  some  days  the  hitherings  and  thitherings  be- 
tween the  various  groups  kept  political  Germany  on  the 
tiptoe  of  excitement.  The  Independent  Socialists  held 
aloof  and  refused  entirely  to  be  associated  in  any  Gov- 
ernment with  the  Majority  Socialists.  The  Majority  So- 
cialists refused  with  equal  firmness  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  a  Cabinet  in  which  their  deadly  enemies  the  Volks- 
partei  would  necessarily  play  a  leading  part.  The  Zen- 
trum with  its  sixty-eight  seats  and  Liberal  leanings  clearly 
held  the  balance  of  power  between  the  conflicting  parties. 
The  political  crisis  lasted  for  a  fortnight,  during  which 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    199 

period  Germany  was  practically  without  a  Government. 
This  state  of  affairs  was  considerably  aggravated  by  the 
approach  of  the  Spa  Conference  and  the  necessity  to 
have  a  German  Cabinet  in  existence  with  whom  negotia- 
tions could  be  carried  on.  Finally,  after  many  days  of 
uncertainty,  a  new  Coalition  Government  emerged  with 
Herr  Fehrenbach,  the  Zentrum  leader,  as  Chancellor. 
The  new  Government  is  largely  Zentrum  with  a  dash  of 
Demokraten,  but  the  sinister  influence  of  the  Volks- 
partei  is  dominant  in  its  counsels.  The  Government  can 
command  no  clear  majority.  It  is  confronted  with  a 
solid  block  of  Socialist  opposition.  The  Social  Demo- 
crats, whatever  the  attitude  of  the  Independents,  are  not 
likely  to  hamper  the  new  Cabinet  in  vital  questions  of 
external  politics.  But  in  daily  life  it  will  be  forced  to 
lead  the  uneasy  existence  of  playing  off  the  various  groups 
against  each  other.  It  is  a  weak  Government  at  a  mo- 
ment when  strength  is  essential,  and  such  strength  as  it 
possesses  is  largely  of  the  wrong  kind. 

This  upshot,  as  I  see  it,  is  wholly  devoid  of  comfort 
to  any  one  who  desires  the  rehabilitation  of  Germany  on 
right  lines.  The  election  is  the  writing  on  the  wall  which 
even  at  the  eleventh  hour  should  command  the  attention 
of  the  little  ring  of  politicians  who  control  the  Entente 
policy.  This  shifting  of  German  opinion  to  the  right  and 
to  the  left  is  an  ominous  sign.  The  party  standing  for 
ordered  democratic  development  has  been  knocked  out. 
The  British  public  should  try  to  realise  it  has  been  killed 
by  the  Allied  policy.  That  it  was  worth  supporting  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that,  despite  heavy  losses,  the  Social 
Democrats  still  remain  the  largest  individual  group  in  the 
new  Reichstag.    We  have  refused  to  discriminate  between 


200  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  good  and  bad  elements  in  political  Germany.  Our 
hand  has  rested  as  heavily  on  a  democratic  as  it  would 
rightly  have  done  on  a  Junker  Government.  The  shackles 
forged  by  the  Allies  have  in  the  first  place  reduced  the 
only  administration  to  impotence  to  which  they  could  look 
for  the  fulfilment  of  the  just  demands  of  a  revised  Treaty. 
Economic  and  political  recovery  has  been  made  an  im- 
possibility owing  to  the  policy  pursued.  As  a  result,  hun- 
ger, despair,  and  general  misery  have  driven  large  sec- 
tions of  the  working-classes  into  the  arms  of  the  Commun- 
ists. They  have  lost  faith  and  hope  in  a  constitutional 
party  whose  weakness  has  been  so  great.  They  are  out 
for  the  short  cut  of  violent  means  in  order  to  better  con- 
ditions which  they  regard  as  intolerable. 

Meanwhile  the  Deutsche  Volkspartei  and  all  the  wealthy 
and  reactionary  elements  in  the  country  have  been  no  less 
eager  to  stamp  upon  the  smoking  flax  of  a  democratic 
Germany.  On  the  Friday  and  Saturday  before  the  poll  I 
attended  meetings  respectively  of  the  Volkspartei  and  the 
Social  Democrats.  In  each  case  speeches  were  made 
typical  of  the  two  sets  of  ideas  at  war  in  Germany  to- 
day. On  this  occasion  the  Volkspartei  speakers  hardly 
took  the  trouble  to  camouflage  their  real  opinions,  though 
one  pastor  spoke  eloquently  of  the  "Liberalisms"  of  which 
they  were  the  guardians — a  claim  which  moved  me  to 
secret  mirth.  The  arguments  were  developed  on  the  same 
lines  as  those  I  have  described  above,  only  on  this  occasion 
the  cloven  hoof  was  still  more  obvious.  The  revolution 
and  the  Republic  were  the  root  causes  of  Germany's 
present  misery.  The  view  of  the  Volkspartei  that  a  Con- 
stitutional Monarchy  was  the  best  form  of  government 
was   unchanged,   though  they   "accepted"   the   Republic. 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    201 

Soon  they  hoped  the  old  red  and  white  and  black  colours 
would  wave  over  them  again — a  remark  which  roused 
frantic  applause  from  the  large  and  enthusiastic  audience. 
Internationalism  and  the  League  of  Nations  were  con- 
demned in  unsparing  terms.  Who  were  the  Allies  to 
advance  these  principles  ?  Let  them  cease  to  boycott  Ger- 
mans in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  let  France  bring  to 
an  end  the  scandal  of  her  black  troops  in  the  Occupied 
Areas.  Then  they  might  begin  to  talk  about  international- 
ism. As  for  England,  no  country  pursued  its  policy  with 
more  consistent  and  single-eyed  devotion  to  its  own  in- 
terests. Germany  could  only  be  remade  on  the  basis  of 
a  strong  and  efficient  nationalism.  A  new  spirit  was 
abroad  in  the  land  and,  granted  the  defeat  of  the  Social- 
ists and  Social  Democrats,  all  that  had  been  lost  might  be 
regained. 

Very  different  was  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Social  Democrats  on  the  following  night.  From 
first  to  last  not  one  word  was  said  with  which  I,  as  an 
English  Liberal,  was  out  of  harmony.  Any  democratic 
audience  in  Great  Britain  would  have  found  itself  in  entire 
sympathy  with  the  general  views  expressed.  The  audi- 
ence was  typically  working-class;  quiet,  orderly  people, 
who  made  on  me  an  unmistakable  impression  of  under- 
feeding and  suffering.  The  shabby  field-grey  uniforms 
converted  to  civilian  use  served  to  heighten  the  curious 
earthen  look  noticeable  on  so  many  faces  here.  Food  is 
plentiful  now  in  the  Occupied  Area,  but  the  cost  of  living 
is  so  high,  many  families  remain  ill-nourished.  Fresh 
milk  is  unobtainable;  during  the  many  months  I  have 
been  in  Cologne  I  have  never  seen  a  drop.  Over  and 
over  again  the  same  question  is  driven  home  with  over- 


202  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

whelming  force:  can  even  the  most  volatile  and  oppor- 
tunist of  politicians  imagine  that  the  unspecified  millions 
of  the  indemnity,  or,  indeed,  any  indemnity  at  all,  can 
be  collected  from  a  nation  which  is  not  in  a  position  to 
eat  or  work? 

Herr  Aleerfeld,  the  leader  of  the  Social  Democrats  in 
Cologne,  and  Frau  Rohl  were  the  principal  speakers  at 
this  final  gathering.  Both  were  members  of  the  National 
Assembly ;  Frau  Rohl  unfortunately  has  not  survived  the 
deluge  which  has  overwhelmed  many  of  her  colleagues.  A 
capable-looking  woman  with  golden  hair,  she  reminded  me 
a  little  of  Mary  Macarthur,  though  lacking  in  the  mag- 
netism and  stature,  moral  no  less  than  physical,  of  the 
English  trade-union  leader.  Herr  Meerfeld's  speech  was 
a  merciless  indictment  of  the  former  militarist  Govern- 
ment and  its  colossal  blunders  in  connection  with  the  war. 
In  his  first  words  he  struck  the  keynote  of  all  that  fol- 
lowed :  "We  will  have  no  more  war.  What  we  want  in 
future  is  a  Teace-Kultur'  " — that  untranslatable  word 
which  in  so  many  varied  forms  finds  its  place  in  the  po- 
litical utterances  of  all  parties — "we  seek  a  revision  of  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles,  but  we  seek  it  through  a  policy 
of  reconciliation  and  understanding  with  the  democracies 
in  other  countries."  The  failures  of  the  military  party 
to  make  peace  when  an  honourable  peace  was  still  possible, 
the  rejection  of  President  V/ilson's  offers  of  mediation, 
the  folly  and  crime  of  the  unrestricted  U-boat  campaign — 
all  these  subjects  were  handled  in  a  spirit  which  aston- 
ished me.  A  pamphlet  on  sale  at  the  meeting,  "Wer 
tragt  die  Schuld  an  unserem  Elend?"  (Who  bears  the 
responsibility  for  our  misery?),  of  which  I  bought  a  copy, 
was  packed  with  a  damning  array  of  facts,  many  of  them 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    203 

unknown  to  me,  as  to  the  part  played  by  the  Kaiser's 
Government  during  the  war.  "The  German  people  have 
been  lied  to,  and  deceived,  and  betrayed,"  cried  the  speak- 
er. "We  were  told  that  the  U-boat  campaign  would  bring 
England  to  her  knees  in  three  months!''  German  men- 
tality is  a  baffling  thing,  but  I  hardly  expected  that  this 
remark  would  be  received  with  shouts  of  good-natured 
laughter.  The  long  arm  of  England's  sea-power  has  been 
no  laughing  matter  for  Germany,  but  throughout  this 
campaign  I  was  specially  struck  with  the  absence  of  hos- 
tility shown  to  England.  Even  at  the  Volkspartei  meet- 
ings I  listened  in  vain  for  the  note  which  shows  itself 
unmistakable  when  an  audience  is  deeply  roused.  The 
justice  and  fair  dealing  which  have  marked  the  British 
Occupation  have  contributed  primarily  to  this  end, 

A  quaint  little  woman  dressed  in  black  came  on  to  the 
platform  to  make  a  few  remarks  during  the  discussion. 
At  first  she  was  almost  inaudible,  but  her  voice  gathered 
force  and  courage  as  she  proceeded.  She  had  been  a  Red 
Cross  nurse  during  the  war,  so  she  said.  Nothing  could 
have  been  more  scandalous  than  the  pilfering  by  the  of- 
ficers in  charge  of  stores  and  comforts  destined  for 
wounded  men.  She  had  to  stand  by  helplessly  and  watch 
robbery  and  corruption  of  all  kinds  going  on  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  sufferers.  "These  heroes  who  filled  their 
pockets."  she  concluded  naively,  "always  declared  they 
were  great  patriots.  Please  vote  to-morrow  for  the  patri- 
otism of  the  Social  Democrats,  which  won't  rob  sick 
men."  Even  more  pathetic  was  the  appeal  of  a  working- 
man  on  whom  disease  had  clearly  laid  a  fatal  hand.  He 
addressed  the  meeting  as  "dear  brothers  and  sisters," 
which  raised  a  laugh.    But  there  was  nothing  comic  about 


204  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  few  words  spoken.  He  had  starved,  so  he  said,  during 
the  war.  W'ars  meant  nothing  but  misery  and  starvation. 
Let  them  support  the  Social  Democrats  and  then  there 
would  be  no  more  war.  He  was  followed  by  a  Communist 
youth,  who  in  languid  and  superior  tones  struck  the  first 
note  of  dissent  by  adjuring  those  present  at  the  meeting 
not  to  vote  at  all.  If,  however,  they  felt  irresistibly 
driven  to  the  polls,  the  only  mitigation  of  a  bad  act  would 
be  to  vote  for  the  Independent  Socialists.  General  uproar 
resulted  from  this  advice,  a  fat  man  near  me  rising  from 
his  seat  and  shouting  with  fury,  "I  know  how  you'll  vote. 
You're  the  sort  that  votes  Zentrum."  The  Communist 
highbrow  did  not  stop  to  see  the  end  of  the  storm  he  had 
provoked,  but,  having  said  his  say,  discreetly  fled  before 
Herr  Meerfeld  could  deliver  a  highly  chastening  reply. 
He  left  the  hall  pursued  by  the  execrations  of  my  neigh- 
bour, who  showed  signs  of  vaulting  over  the  chairs  and 
continuing  the  argument  in  more  forcible  fashion  in  the 
street.  The  general  tone  of  the  meeting,  apart  from  this 
incident,  was  serious  and  appreciative,  but  it  lacked  any 
of  that  electric  quality  which  thrills  a  party  on  the  eve  of 
victory.  I  came  away  uneasy  as  to  the  result — an  un- 
easiness more  than  justified  by  the  issue. 

As  for  the  future,  it  lies,  as  I  write,  on  the  knees  of 
dark  and  doubtful  gods.  The  British  people  found  it  hard 
to  acquire  the  habit  of  war  and  to  make  war  thoroughly. 
To-day  it  seems  as  hard  a  task  to  recover  the  habit  of 
peace  and  make  peace  thoroughly.  As  I  have  said  be- 
fore, so  long  as  we  persist  in  regarding  Germany  as  a 
political  unit  solidly  inspired  by  the  old  military  spirit, 
and  of  using  a  sledge-hammer  to  it  on  all  occasions,  the 
resettlement  of  Europe  becomes  an  impossibility.     The 


SOME  ELECTIONEERING  IMPRESSIONS    205 

moral  of  the  Kapp  Putsch  has  been  completely  ignored 
in  Allied  countries.  Yet  it  was  highly  suggestive  as  to 
the  changed  conditions  which  now  rule.  A  militarist  plot 
was  nipped  in  the  bud  by  the  German  working-classes 
who  retaliated  with  the  weapon  of  a  general  strike,  I 
do  not  know  what  better  proof  of  good  faith  the  German 
democrats  could  have  given  as  to  their  determination  to 
have  no  more  to  do  with  the  old  regime.  The  cry  of  "give 
us  back  our  Junkers"  will  never  arise  unless  democracy 
itself  is  wholly  discredited.  We  can  take  no  risks  with 
Germany,  and  there  is  no  question  of  her  escape  from  the 
penalties  of  the  war  she  provoked,  and  the  burdens  which 
in  consequence  she  must  bear.  Common-sense  points, 
however,  to  the  Allies  giving  a  fair  chance  to  the  demo- 
cratic elements  from  whom,  and  from  whom  alone,  we 
have  anything  to  hope  as  regards  the  future.  We  may 
make  Germany's  burden  impossible,  in  which  case,  sooner 
or  later,  general  collapse  and  chaos  must  follow — chaos 
and  collapse  which  will  certainly  not  be  confined  within 
the  borders  of  this  country.  Or  we  may  make  the  bur- 
den possible,  and  not  deny  a  place  for  repentance  to  the 
men  and  women  who  are  struggling  against  heavy  odds 
to  remake  their  country  on  principles  which  are  the  basis 
of  our  own  freedom. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
HATRED 

It  is,  I  fear,  true  that  national  hatreds  are  in  the  main 
created  and  kept  ahve  by  the  educated  and  upper  classes. 
Working  men  and  women  throughout  the  world,  absorbed 
as  they  are  in  daily  toil  and  often  preoccupied  about  the 
next  meal,  have  no  leisure  for  the  cultivation  of  abstract 
sentiments.  With  a  greater  simplicity  of  outlook  they 
take  people  and  things  as  they  find  them  and  do  not 
theorise  about  their  faults.  The  scholastic  attitude  as 
regards  hatred  is  an  ironical  commentary  on  some  of  the 
byways  into  which  education  is  apt  to  stray.  Professors 
— German  professors  in  particular — are  notorious  for 
their  bloodthirstiness.  The  ordinary  fighting  soldier,  who 
has  been  over  the  top  half  a  dozen  times,  is  a  man  of  peace 
compared  with  certain  ferocious  persons  of  academic  dis- 
tinction. The  brandishing  of  quills  has  apparently  a  more 
permanently  disturbing  eflFect  on  character  than  the  hurl- 
ing of  hand  grenades.  The  man  in  the  trench  has,  after 
all,  a  certain  tie  of  fellowship  with  the  man  in  the  trench 
opposite.  They  are  linked  together  by  a  common  sense 
of  duty  fulfilled  and  of  horrors  equally  endured.  Each 
knows  that  the  other  is  a  man  very  much  like  himself, 
sick  with  the  misery  and  dirt  of  the  whole  business, 
whose  heart  in  all  probability  is  yearning  just  in  the  same 
way  for  a  wife,  and  home,  and  child.     Men  under  these 

206 


HATRED  207 

circumstances  do  not  give  themselves  up  to  abstract 
hatreds. 

But  among  civiHans,  a  man  or  woman's  gift  of  war- 
like talk  is  often  in  inverse  ratio  to  any  sort  of  personal 
capacity  to  shoulder  the  responsibilities  of  battle.  Women 
are  always  apt  to  be  more  bitter  than  men  because  their 
measure  of  personal  sacrifice  in  the  war  has  been  invari- 
ably less.  They  have  seen  their  loved  ones  perish  and 
the  light  of  happiness  quenched  in  their  own  lives.  It  is 
not  easy  for  them  to  think  steadily  of  the  great  ideals  for 
which  men  died,  and  to  realise  that  bitterness  breeds  a 
spirit  which  makes  the  fulfilment  of  such  ends  impossible. 
The  case  of  the  professors  is  even  worse.  In  Germany 
the  subservience  of  high  academic  authorities  to  the  most 
abominable  doctrines  of  the  militarists  was  a  grave  and 
sinister  feature  in  the  history  of  the  years  preceding  the 
war.  The  beating  of  tom-toms  by  men  presumably  of 
education  goes  a  long  way  to  justify  the  jibe  of  the  "New 
Ignorance"  applied  to  education  by  Mr,  James  Stephens. 
Education  left  to  itself  is  just  a  force,  and  if  it  throws  off 
the  right  sort  of  moral  controls,  becomes,  as  the  whole 
history  of  latter-day  Germany  proves,  a  very  dangerous 
force.  Probably  in  Germany  to-day  there  is  no  class 
more  bitter,  no  class  more  full  of  hatred  and  the  desire 
for  revenge,  than  that  of  the  professors.  But  a  similar 
attitude  may  often  be  found  among  well-to-do  people  of 
all  races,  people  who,  whether  or  not  they  have  been  edu- 
cated in  the  real  sense  of  the  term,  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunities and  advantages  which  spring  from  worldly  status 
and  prosperity. 

No  side  of  the  Occupation  has  been  more  interesting 
than  the  points  of  contact  it  has  provided  between  the 


208  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

English  and  the  Germans.  Social  intercourse  on  the 
upper  levels  is  non-existent.  Germany  and  England  were 
at  war  when  the  Rhineland  was  occupied,  and  the  relations 
then  inevitable  between  conqueror  and  conquered  have 
remained  unaltered.  Many  of  the  English  families  now 
living  in  Cologne  can  hardly  be  conscious  that  they  are  in 
a  foreign  country.  The  English  military  community  lives 
a  life  apart.  At  hardly  any  point,  except  in  the  shops,  do 
they  come  in  contact  with  the  Germans.  The  large  ma- 
jority of  English  people,  men  and  women  alike,  do  not 
speak  the  language,  and  few  make  any  effort  to  learn  it. 
It  is  not  easy  to  say  what  impressions  of  Germany  and 
the  Germans  many  of  these  people  will  bring  away.  Opin- 
ion on  the  subject  varies  considerably,  and  the  views  ex- 
pressed are  as  wide  asunder  as  the  poles.  Some  people  ad- 
mit frankly  that  their  judgment  and  outlook  have  been 
modified  considerably  by  all  they  have  seen  and  heard. 
Others  brought  a  stock-in-trade  of  prejudices  from  Eng- 
land and  have  guarded  it  jealously  from  any  contact  with 
facts.  If  an  Occupation  following  on  a  war  has  any 
moral  value,  it  is  that  necessarily  it  brings  the  enemies 
of  yesterday  in  touch,  and  so  helps  to  break  down  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  prejudice  and  to  soften  bitter  feeling. 
Thus  the  way  is  paved  to  the  resumption,  sooner  or  later, 
of  normal  relations.  It  is  easy  to  hate  the  abstract  entity 
Germany.  It  is  less  easy  to  hate  individual  Germans  who 
may  prove  on  acquaintance  to  be  estimable  people.  Little 
of  this  modifying  influence  has  made  itself  felt  on  the 
Occupation.  Many  women,  and  some  officers,  declare 
that  the  behaviour  of  the  Boche  is  rude  and  insolent;  that 
he  jostles  English  women  in  the  streets,  and  is  generally 
lying  and  dishonest  in  all  his  ways.    Circumstantial  stories 


HATRED  209 

are  related  in  this  sense.  It  has  been  stated  in  my  presence 
that  a  certain  lady  could  not  use  the  trams  owing  to  the 
gross  incivility  of  the  conductors.  I  am  left  wondering 
how  far  people  who  have  these  experiences  provoke  them 
by  trailing  their  coats.  Obviously,  English  women  who 
talk  loudly  in  a  tram  about  "the  beastly  Boche"  may  find 
themselves  in  trouble  with  their  fellow-passengers,  the 
German  ignorance  of  foreign  languages  not  being  as 
great  as  their  own. 

Speaking  for  myself,  I  have  never  received  one  rude 
or  uncivil  word  from  man,  woman,  or  child  during  the 
year  I  spent  in  Germany.  I  went  about  sometimes  wear- 
ing the  official  arm-band,  and  therefore  obviously  Eng- 
lish: sometimes  not.  I  have  never  noticed  the  smallest 
diflference  in  the  behaviour  of  the  people  on  the  pavements 
or  in  the  street  cars.  Tram  conductors  I  have  found  al- 
most without  exception  a  polite  and  efficient  body  of  men. 
All  great  cities  contain  a  proportion  of  gross  and  unde- 
sirable people.  Cologne  is  no  exception  to  this  rule,  but 
the  particular  elements  are  not  more  conspicuous  here 
than  elsewhere.  So  far  from  hostility,  I  have  received 
much  courtesy  and  consideration  from  Germans  with 
whom  I  came  into  casual  touch.  I  am  not  denying  the 
reality  of  other  people's  contrary  experiences.  I  can  only 
state  my  own.  Temperament  is  a  mirror  which  deflects 
the  passage  of  facts,  and  some  of  the  English  in  Cologne 
have  arrived  at  fixed  judgments  about  Germany  before 
setting  foot  in  the  country.  If  they  find  the  inhabitants 
civil  they  at  once  call  them  servile,  if  they  show  spirit  they 
denounce  them  as  insolent.  In  Cologne  drawing-rooms 
English  women  will  sometimes  discuss  the  Germans 
much  in  the  spirit  of  the  Mohammedans  who  sat  in  a 


210  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

circle  and  spat  at  a  ham.  I  have  never  been  able  to  under- 
stand on  what  grounds  they  founded  that  extreme  view. 
Upper-class  Germany  has  vanished  from  the  Occupied 
Areas,  and  no  one  regrets  their  disappearance.  But  as 
regards  the  humbler  classes  with  whom  wc  of  the  Occupa- 
tion come  in  touch,  the  working-men  and  country-folks, 
the  shopkeepers,  small  business  people  and  minor  bu- 
reaucracy, I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  they  are, 
generally  speaking,  hard-working  civil  people,  correct  in 
their  attitude  and  bearing.  Reasonable  people  should  find 
no  difficulty  in  maintaining  the  superficial  amenities  of 
life  with  them,  even  under  the  abnormal  conditions  which 
have  thrown  us  together. 

However  varied  the  views  among  the  officer  class,  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  Army  have  settled  down  to  friendly 
relations  with  the  Germans — too  friendly  many  people 
think.  Men  who  have  never  understood  the  French  tem- 
perament or  outlook  find  themselves  very  much  at  home 
in  Germany.  From  time  to  time  agitated  articles  appear 
in  the  English  papers  deploring  the  fact  that  English  sol- 
diers are  "getting  to  like  Germans,"  and  calling  on  some 
one  to  do  something  drastic.  The  fact  that  the  bow  of 
hatred  does  not  remain  tense  and  strung,  as  desired  by 
some  people,  will  certainly  cause  no  regret  to  those  who 
are  appalled  by  the  perils  of  the  present  state  of  Europe. 
Better  relations  between  nations  will,  I  believe,  be  built 
up  ultimately  on  working-class  levels.  The  diplomacy 
of  the  politicians  in  power  is  too  bitter  and  too  tortuous 
to  further  the  cause  of  European  reconstruction.  From 
this  point  of  view  the  Occupation  has  been  wholly  to  the 
good,  inasmuch  as  tens  of  thousands  of  Englishmen  who 


HATRED  211 

have  passed  through  the  country  have  gone  home  with  a 
saner  appreciation  of  the  situation, 

German  households,  on  whom  many  of  these  men  were 
quartered,  found  to  their  amazement  that  instead  of  prov- 
ing, as  they  feared,  demons  incarnate,  the  British  soldiers 
were  good-hearted,  good-tempered  fellows  who  shared  the 
family  life,  peeled  potatoes,  and  played  with  the  children. 
The  soldiers  on  their  side  appreciated  the  kindly  treatment 
they  received  and  were  touched  by  the  many  evidences  of 
hunger  and  suffering  among  the  working-classes.  Some 
day  I  hope  we  shall  have  a  "Book  of  Decent  Deeds"  show- 
ing that  among  all  belligerents  there  is  another  side  to 
war  besides  that  of  atrocities.  We  may  smile  at  the  true 
story  of  the  British  Tommy  writing  home  to  his  mother 
to  send  him  a  feeding-bottle,  with  tubes  and  apparatus 
complete,  for  a  German  baby  in  his  billet  who  was  in  a 
poor  way  owing  to  the  lack  of  these  things.  The  German 
mother  burst  into  tears  when  she  was  given  the  bottle 
which  meant  the  difference  between  life  and  death  to  the 
child.  But  such  an  act  and  the  spirit  it  breathes  is  a  ray 
of  light  in  the  darkness. 

Loud  protests  are  sometimes  made  by  well-fed,  well- 
to-do  people  as  to  the  impropriety  of  helping  the  starv- 
ing children  of  Central  Europe.  Very  different  was  the 
attitude  of  the  soldiers  who  had  overthrown  the  German 
military  power.  It  is  to  the  eternal  honour  of  the  con- 
quering army  which  marched  into  the  Rhineland,  that  its 
first  act  was  one  of  pity  and  mercy  to  the  hungry  women 
and  children  of  Cologne.  It  was  necessary  for  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, Lord  Plumer,  to  telegraph  to  the  Peace 
Conference  that,  unless  supplies  were  forthcoming  for 
the  underfed  German  civilians,  he  could  not  be  responsi- 


212  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

ble  for  the  effect  on  the  discipHne  of  the  Army.  The  sol- 
diers were  up  in  arms  at  the  spectacle  of  starv^ation,  and 
nothing  could  prevent  them,  contrary  to  orders,  from  shar- 
ing their  rations  with  the  enemy. 

I  think  the  question  of  hatred  is  one  which  calls  for 
clear  thinking  at  the  present  crisis  in  the  world's  history. 
Many  people  imagine  that  when  they  have  abused  the 
Boche  in  round  terms  they  have  "done  their  bit"  towards 
squaring  the  accounts  of  devastated  France  or  Belgium. 
All  that  they  have  done  is  to  feed  and  sustain  the  spirit 
which  led  in  the  first  place  to  the  devastations.  Whatever 
enormities  Germany  may  have  committed  during  the  war, 
the  task  of  punishment  is  not  the  problem  of  supreme 
urgency  which  here  and  now  confronts  us  all.  What  we 
are  face  to  face  with  is  the  question  as  to  whether  civilisa- 
tion as  a  whole  can  survive  the  blows  rained  on  it.  The 
responsibility  of  Germany  for  this  state  of  affairs  is  at 
the  moment  less  important  than  the  rescue  of  civilisation 
from  the  brink  of  the  chasm  on  which  it  is  trembling.  It 
is  useless  to  go  on  saying  that  Germany  must  be  punished 
or  that  Germany  must  pay,  if  in  fact  the  actual  policy 
pursued  is  calculated  to  involve  conquerors  and  con- 
quered alike  in  common  ruin.  At  times  it  is  difficult  to 
avoid  the  gloomy  conclusion  that  we  are  approaching  the 
end  of  a  cycle  of  history,  and  that  a  period  of  darkness 
and  chaos  bids  fair  to  overwhelm  a  world  incapable  of 
saving  itself.  The  economic  and  political  condition  of 
Europe  is  grave  in  the  extreme.  In  every  country  wild 
forces  are  surging  upwards,  the  peril  of  which  lies  in  the 
absence  of  any  powers  of  moral  and  spiritual  counter- 
action.   The  strain  of  the  war  has  swallowed  up  the  spir- 


HATRED  213 

itual  reserves  of  the  world,  and  its  moral  credit  is  not  only 
exhausted  but  overdrawn. 

No  nation  ever  went  to  war  in  a  spirit  more  grave  and 
more  responsible  than  that  in  which  the  British  people 
accepted  the  German  challenge.  The  call  to  arms  is  in- 
variably a  great  and  inspiring  moment.  At  such  a  time 
men  and  women  realise  that  they  are  caught  up  and  raised 
on  the  wing  of  ideals  greater  than  themselves.  But  it  is 
part  of  the  evil  of  war  that  the  longer  it  lasts  the  more 
black  and  the  more  bitter  the  spirit  it  breeds.  From  Au- 
gust 19 14  and  the  hush  of  consecration  which  fell  on  the 
nation,  to  December  191 8  and  what  was  well  described  by 
a  distinguished  publicist  as  the  "organized  blackguard- 
ism" of  the  General  Election,  is  a  falling  away  in  temper 
and  standard  almost  unbearable  to  contemplate. 

I  have  often  wondered  whether  the  men  and  women 
who  lent  themselves  casually  to  "hatred  stunts"  during  the 
war  ever  realised  what  cruel  suffering  was  caused  to  a 
large  number  of  humble  and  obscure  folk.  Now  that  the 
spirit  of  sanity  and  moderation  is  making  itself  heard 
again,  English  people  must  surely  look  back  with  shame 
on  the  treatment  meted  out  to  inoffensive  enemy  aliens. 
Busybodies  obsessed  by  spy  mania  were  merely  a  source 
of  nuisance  and  ridicule  to  the  Secret  Service.  That 
Service  was  highly  efficient,  and  its  agents  were  quite 
capable  of  doing  their  work  without  the  interference  of 
officious  amateurs.  The  German  wife  and  the  English 
woman  with  a  German  husband  were  in  many  cases  treated 
as  outcasts.  Years  of  residence  in  England,  even  the  fact 
of  children  fighting  with  the  British  Army,  did  not  serve 
in  many  cases  to  mitigate  the  violence  and  hatred  of  their 
neighbours.    The  German  wives  of  English  subjects,  and 


214  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  English  wives  of  Germans,  were  naturally  in  a  painful 
and  trying  position  and  one  which  was  bound  to  excite 
prejudice.  The  degree,  however,  to  which  a  group  of 
men  within  Parliament,  and  a  section  of  the  Press  with- 
out, sought  deliberately  to  inflame  the  lov/est  passions  of 
the  mob  in  this  matter,  is  the  most  sordid  page  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  war.  Helpless,  friendless,  without  money, 
unable  to  mak^  their  voices  heard,  these  unhappy  people, 
treated  as  pariahs  both  in  the  land  of  their  birth  and  in 
that  of  their  adoption,  were  hunted  from  pillar  to  post. 

Periodically  ''intern-them-all"  campaigns  were  worked 
up  which  led  to  obscure  Germans  of  proved  respectability 
being  locked  up.  Many  of  these  people  had  English  wives 
and  families,  who  suffered  severely  through  the  removal 
of  the  breadwinner.  English  women  were  forced  to  take 
refuge  in  Germany  from  the  persecutions  of  their  own 
countrymen.  What  are  we  to  think  of  the  spirit  and 
policy  which  could  drive  from  the  shores  of  England — 
England  Jhe  home  of  Liberty,  England  the  safe  asylum 
of  the  oppressed — women  of  our  own  race  who  found 
the  treatment  meted  out  to  them  too  hard  to  be  en- 
dured ? 

Wives  and  families  landed  in  Germany  not  speaking 
one  word  of  the  language,  to  be  welcomed  naturally  by 
a  spirit  as  hard  and  bitter  as  any  they  had  left.  The  lot 
of  English  wives  resident  in  Germany  was  unenviable. 
But  I  do  not  gather  that  enemy  aliens  were  treated  with 
a  greater  measure  of  harshness  in  Germany  during  the 
war  than  what  occurred  in  England.  Many  English 
women  living  in  Germany  throughout  the  war  did  not  suf- 
fer in  any  marked  degree  from  the  hostility  of  their  neigh- 
bours.    Naturally  these  would-be  pogroms  never  catch 


HATRED  215 

the  right  person.  Rich  people  who  may  be  really  mis- 
chievous escape;  the  poor  man  is  hunted.  The  Junkers 
whom  it  would  be  satisfactory  to  punish  are  living  in 
comfort  and  prosperity  on  their  estates.  The  poor  starve 
and  are  driven  down  into  inconceivable  depths  of  misery 
both  of  body  and  soul. 

Even  to-day  the  position  of  many  English  women  in 
Germany  who  are  married  to  Germans  is  most  pitiful. 
Under  the  Peace  Treaty  the  Allies  reserved  the  power  to 
retain  and  liquidate  all  property  belonging  to  German  na- 
tionals. I  am  not  concerned  at  this  point  to  raise  the  ques- 
tion as  to  how  far  this  precedent  of  confiscation  may  prove 
a  double-edged  weapon  in  the  capitalist  world.  But  again, 
it  is  not  the  rich  man  who  suffers.  Large  fortunes  can 
always  take  care  of  themselves.  The  people  who  have 
been  ground  to  powder  by  this  provision  are  women  with 
tiny  incomes  or  annuities,  the  complete  stopping  of  which 
has  meant  literal  starvation.  Most  painful  cases  of  this 
character  came  to  my  notice  in  the  Rhineland.  In  some 
instances  women  are  told  that  if  they  leave  their  husbands 
and  return  to  England  the  money  will  be  paid.  Is  a  war 
fought  for  "truth  and  justice"'  to  eventuate  in  alternatives 
of  such  a  character?  Are  women,  at  the  end  of  an  agon- 
ising experience,  to  choose  between  husbands  they  may 
love  and  the  stark  fact  of  starvation?  I  heard  of  one 
English  woman,  too  proud  to  beg  or  receive  alms,  who 
came  by  stealth  and  searched  the  swill-tubs  of  a  mess  in 
order  to  pick  out  food  from  it.  The  British  military 
authorities  have  shown  invariable  sympathy  and  kindness 
to  these  unfortunates.  They  have  done  what  lay  in  their 
power  to  mitigate  the  circumstances.  Soldiers  do  not  fail 
in  compassion  to  the  poor  and  needy.    The  little  group  of 


216  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

politicians  conspicuous  for  their  Hun-hunting  activities 
have  not  served  with  the  colours.  The  British  Army  fights 
its  enemies  in  the  field.  It  does  not  persecute  women  and 
decrepit  old  men.  But  the  soldiers  cannot  alter  the  con- 
fiscation clauses  of  the  Treaty  which  press  with  such  pe- 
culiar hardship  on  people  of  small  incomes.  If  these 
clauses  are  directed  to  searching  the  pockets  of  the  Stinnes 
and  the  Krupps,  let  exceptions  at  least  be  made  on  the 
lower  levels.  The  Treaty  of  Versailles  in  many  of  its 
provisions  merely  reflects  the  current  hatreds  of  the  hour. 
Modification  of  these  clauses  is  inevitable  when  the  wave 
of  passion  has  subsided. 

Not  sorrow,  loss,  and  suffering,  but  the  temper  born 
and  bred  of  war,  is  its  real  and  essential  evil.  The  ruth- 
less and  cruel  spirit  which  dominated  the  German  war- 
machine  and  the  many  crimes  committed  are  mainly  re- 
sponsible for  the  bitterness  which  was  developed  among 
the  British  peoples  during  the  struggle.  However  nat- 
ural the  growth  of  this  temper,  its  survival  to-day  is  a 
menace  to  the  future  of  the  world.  Hatred  when  it  takes 
possession  of  the  soul  of  a  man  or  woman  is  a  wholly 
corroding  and  destructive  force.  Where  hatred  abides  the 
powers  of  darkness  have  their  being,  ready  to  sally  forth 
and  work  havoc  anew.  Meanwhile  the  breaking  of  this 
coil  promises  to  be  no  easy  task.  The  war  let  loose  in 
every  country  a  new  and  evil  force  called  propaganda — 
in  plain  language,  organised  lying.  It  is  one  of  the  foibles 
of  propagandists  that  they  insist  on  speaking  of  them- 
selves as  super-George  Washingtons.  But  during  the  war 
any  fiction  which  came  to  hand  was  good  enough  so  long 
as  it  served  to  inflame  national  hatreds.  Propaganda  dur- 
ing the  last  years  of  the  struggle  did  a  great  deal  to  ob- 


HATRED  217 

scure  the  moral  issues  for  which  we  were  fighting.  It 
corrupted  both  character  and  temper.  But  the  propa- 
ganda genie,  having  emerged  from  its  bottle  in  clouds  of 
smoke  and  dirt,  entirely  refuses  to  subside  now  the  strug- 
gle is  over.  It  is  one  of  the  horrid  forces  with  vitality 
derived  from  the  war  which  continues  to  pursue  an  inde- 
pendent existence.  It  is  the  weapon-in-chief  for  keeping 
open  sores  and  exasperating  passions  which  good  sense 
would  try  to  allay.  Nations  catch  sight  of  each  other 
dimly  through  mists  of  misrepresentation  and  bitterness. 
Truth  and  justice  disappear  in  the  welter,  and  without 
truth  and  justice  the  practical  affairs  of  the  world  drift 
daily  towards  an  ultimate  whirlpool  of  chaos. 

Great,  therefore,  as  I  see  it  is  the  responsibility  of  all 
who  to-day  throw  their  careless  offerings  on  the  altars  of 
hatred,  so  that  the  flames  of  discord  flare  up  anew.  The 
men  and  women  who  talk  and  act  thus  must  try  to  realise 
that  the  world  is  reaching  its  limit  of  endurance,  and 
the  situation  calls  not  for  any  post-war  fomenting  of  the 
terrible  legacy  of  strife,  but  for  a  truce  of  God  between 
victors  and  vanquished.  No  prejudices  are  harder  to 
shift  than  those  which  ignorance  has  exalted  into  moral 
principles  of  the  first  order.  Thought  is  apt  to  be  an  un- 
pleasant and  disturbing  process ;  the  cliches  of  hatred  are 
easy  to  use — why  alter  them  when  they  round  off  a  sen- 
tence so  well?  But  unless  some  movement  can  develop 
between  nations,  unless  the  forces  of  destruction  can  be 
checked,  then  civilisation  in  the  form  we  know  it  would 
appear  to  be  doomed. 

Germany  has  still  a  whole  volume  of  bitter  truth  to 
learn  as  to  the  part  she  has  played  in  the  world  catastro- 
phe provoked  by  her  rulers.    Until  she  recognises  and  ad- 


218  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

mits  the  evil  done  she  cannot  regain  her  place  in  the  fel- 
lowship of  nations.  But  after  the  great  bartering  of  ideals 
represented  by  the  Treaty  of  Versailles,  the  Allies  are 
hardly  in  a  position  to  preach  sermons  to  her  day  in  and 
day  out  on  moral  failures.  The  practical  fact  which  con- 
fronts us  all  is  that  the  world  is  in  ruin,  and  that  where 
the  politicians  have  failed  hopelessly  the  decent  people  of 
all  nations  have  to  get  together  and  make  it  habitable 
again.  To  dismiss  the  German  nation  as  a  gang  of  crim- 
inals unfit  for  human  intercourse  may  be  a  magnificent 
gesture  on  the  part  of  the  thoughtless.  But  it  is  not  busi- 
ness. There  are  good  Germans  and  bad  Germans,  Ger- 
mans animated  by  a  quite  detestable  spirit,  others  who 
are  conscientious  and  high-minded.  The  wholesale  in- 
dictment of  a  nation  is  as  absurd  as  the  wholesale  in- 
dictment of  a  class.  Human  nature  falls  into  types  of 
character  far  more  than  into  social  and  racial  divisions. 
In  the  ultimate  issue  society  is  divided  into  two  sets  of 
people :  those  who  behave  decently  and  those  who  do  not. 
People  of  the  first  type  have  a  common  kinship  whatever 
their  race  or  colour,  and  the  need  for  asserting  that  kinship 
was  never  .more  urgent  than  at  present. 

If  the'  world  is  to  survive,  tolerable  social,  economic, 
and  political  relations  must  be  resumed  sooner  or  later 
between  enemy  countries.  It  is  of  the  first  importance 
that  the  better  elements  in  Germany  should  be  encouraged 
and  strengthened,  so  that  through  their  influence  a  new 
spirit  should  animate  the  general  German  outlook  on  life. 
When  no  effort  is  made  to  discriminate,  when  good  and 
bad  are  branded  alike  in  one  sweeping  condemnation,  hope 
of  improvement  vanishes.  A  nation  to  whom  all  place  for 
repentance  is  denied  loses  heart  and  ceases  to  try.     Rea- 


HATRED  219 

sonable  men  cannot  make  their  voices  heard  under  such 
conditions.  Anger  and  bitterness  at  what  is  considered 
unfair  treatment  surge  upwards  again,  and  from  them  the 
desire  for  revenge  is  born  anew.  It  is  fooHsh  to  kick  a 
man  repeatedly  in  the  face  and  then  to  complain  that  he 
does  not  behave  like  a  gentleman.  If  the  spirit  of  hatred 
is  to  rule  in  Europe  we  are  heading  straight  for  another 
war.  This  eventuality  should,  I  think,  be  recognised 
clearly  by  the  hotheads  of  all  nations. 

Germany  cannot  continue  indefinitely  to  fulfil  the  func- 
tion of  the  whipping-boy  of  Europe.  The  Junkers  and 
soldiers  who  made  the  war,  and  were  responsible  for  all 
that  was  cruel  and  brutal  in  its  conduct,  have  disappeared. 
Owing  to  gross  mismanagement  in  connection  with  the 
war  criminals,  many  Germans  guilty  of  specific  acts  of 
cruelty  who  should  have  been  dealt  with  severely  have 
slipped  through  the  net.  But  where  statesmanship  has 
blundered  inexcusably,  it  is  unjust  to  visit  vicariously  on 
a  whole  community  the  sins  of  a  class  or  of  individuals. 
To  do  so  is  to  destroy  any  chance  of  the  growth  of  a 
better  spirit  among  the  German  people  as  a  whole.  I  re- 
call the  words  of  farewell  addressed  to  me  by  a  sales- 
woman in  a  Cologne  shop  to  whom  I  was  saying  good- 
bye :  "When  you  go  back  to  England,  tell  your  country- 
men that  we  are  not  such  dreadful  people  as  they  think, 
and  ask  them  also  to  remember  that  we  too  have  our  pride 
and  our  self-respect." 

Many  Germans  are  as  much  blinded  by  hatred  as  to 
our  actions  and  motives  as  we  are  about  theirs.  We 
recognise  with  angry  exasperation  the  measure  of  their 
misconceptions  about  ourselves.  Is  it  not  possible  that 
misconceptions  may  exist  on  our  side  as  to  the  character 


220  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

and  attitude  of,  anyway,  some  Germans?  We  are  sore, 
and  sad,  and  bitter.  So  are  countless  Germans  who  are 
convinced  that  their  lives  have  been  ruined  by  our  jeal- 
ousy and  ambition.  Is  it  humanly  possible  to  carry  on 
the  business  of  life  in  a  nightmare  world,  where  millions 
of  human  beings  view  each  other  through  glasses  so  dis- 
torted? The  moral  deadlock  at  the  moment  is  complete. 
It  can  only  be  solved  by  the  spread  of  a  new  spirit  of 
truth  and  charity.  That  cannot  arise  till  reasonable  men 
and  women  of  all  nations,  realising  the  perils  which  con- 
front us  one  and  all,  try  and  form  unbiassed  judgments, 
not  only  of  each  other's  actions,  but  what  is  perhaps  even 
more  important,  of  each  other's  motives  and  principles. 
In  all  this  there  is  no  question  of  slurring  over  evil  where 
evil  exists,  or  condoning  wrong  where  wrong  has  been 
done.  It  is  a  question  of  seeing  these  things  in  their  true 
scale  and  right  proportion.  Righteous  anger  may  rouse  a 
sense  of  repentance  where  hatred  only  hardens  and  em- 
bitters. The  wrath  of  man  has  had  its  full  play  through 
years  of  strife  and  horror.  Judged  as  a  constructive 
force,  its  fruits  up  to  the  present  have  been  meagre.  Is 
it  possible  that,  after  all,  Paul  of  Tarsus  was  right,  and 
that  the  fruits  of  the  spirit,  joy,  peace,  and  righteousness, 
do  not  lie  along  this  particular  path?  In  so  far  as  the 
spirit  of  hatred  is  cultivated  and  encouraged,  it  perpet- 
uates all  that  is  worst  in  war,  without  any  of  the  redeem- 
ing qualities  of  heroism  and  self-sacrifice  which  make  war 
tolerable.  Hatred  breeds  hatred,  strife  further  strife, 
violence  yet  more  violence.  From  this  vicious  circle,  so 
long  as  we  allow  ourselves  to  turn  in  it,  there  is  no  escape. 
Faith,  hope,  and  charity  alone  can  break  the  wheel  of  tor- 
ment in  which  at  present  we  revolve,  and  bring  about  the 


HATRED  221 

necessary  moral  and  spiritual  detente  without  which  the 
world  must  surely  perish. 

Peace  is  not  a  question  of  documents  and  treaties.  The 
world  is  still  in  a  condition  of  bitter  strife,  because  the 
spiritual  values  which  make  peace  in  the  real  sense  possible 
are  at  present  wholly  lacking  in  the  relations  of  the  respec- 
tive nations,  I  am  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  in  this, 
as  in  other  respects,  the  instinct  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  throughout  Europe  is  sounder  and  better  than  that 
of  their  rulers.  Whatever  the  schemes  and  intrigues 
of  a  tortuous  diplomacy,  it  is  already  clear  that  the  work- 
ing-classes are  determined  not  to  be  made  pawns  in  any 
fresh  war  of  aggression.  The  German  working-man  is 
saturated  with  the  misery  of  war.  He  will  have  no  more 
of  it  unless  some  policy  of  oppression,  suicidal  in  its 
character,  re-creates  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the  post- 
Jena  period.  Among  my  memories  of  Germany  I  dwell 
on  none  with  more  hope  than  an  incident  which  befell  us 
one  spring  evening  in  the  Eifel,  We  were  spending  Sun- 
day at  Nideggen,  a  village  perched  high  on  its  red  vol- 
canic clififs  above  the  valley  of  a  delectable  trout  stream. 
We  stopped  in  the  course  of  our  walk  to  admire  a  cottage 
garden  where  peas  and  beans  were  growing  with  mathe- 
matical diligence  and  regularity.  Care  had  obviously  been 
lavished  on  every  plant  and  flower  of  the  little  plot,  which 
lay  on  a  sunny  slope  facing  south.  The  owner  who  was 
hard  at  work  among  the  peas,  seeing  our  interest,  asked 
if  we  would  like  to  go  over  his  garden.  We  accepted  the 
invitation  willingly,  and  he  conducted  us  with  pride  from 
one  end  to  the  other  of  his  tiny  kingdom.  He  was  an 
admirable  type  of  peasant,  a  tall  grave  man  with  honeit 
eyes  and  courteous  manners.    He  combined  some  market- 


222  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

gardening  with  his  business  of  stone-mason.  The  con- 
versation drifted  as  usual  to  the  war.  He  had  served  in 
a  pioneer  corps  but  had  come  through,  "Gott  sei  dank/' 
unscathed.  Of  war  or  the  possible  recurrence  of  war  he 
spoke  with  that  intense  horror  which  marks  all  the  Ger- 
man working-classes.  Never  must  such  a  thing  happen 
again,  he  said;  never  must  there  be  another  war.  My 
mind  fled  across  the  seas  to  a  corner  of  Kent  where  I  was 
well  assured  on  this  fine  spring  evening,  another  friend  of 
mine,  one  William  Catt,  a  son  of  the  soil,  just  as  hon- 
est and  simple,  just  as  devoted  to  his  home  and  family, 
was  also  attending  to  peas  and  runner  beans.  William 
Catt  too  had  served  in  the  war.  What  crazy  system  could 
send  those  two  good  men  with  rifles  in  their  hands  to  shoot 
each  other  ?  The  Nideggcn  peasant  had  reflected  to  some 
purpose  on  "Earth's  return  for  whole  centuries  of  folly, 
noise,  and  sin."  Spade  in  hand  he  looked  across  the  fair 
landscape  at  our  feet,  where  the  river  lay  like  a  silver 
streak  winding  among  woods  and  meadows.  Then  he 
turned  to  me  and  said  very  seriously,  "For  a  thousand 
years  men  have  been  mad;  now  we  must  all  learn  to  be 
more  reasonable." 

Would  that  the  diplomatists  of  all  countries  could  take 
to  heart  words  so  true  and  so  wise !  Here  was  the  spirit 
which  alone  can  create  and  sustain  the  League  of  Na- 
tions. While  the  political  wire-pullers  of  Europe  seek 
to  make  of  the  League  the  unhappy  pushball  of  their  own 
intrigues,  this  German  working-man  had  the  root  of  the 
matter  in  him.  May  his  vision  of  a  world  in  which  men 
are  learning  to  be  "reasonable"  wax  from  dim  hope  into 
full  and  perfect  realisation. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND 

Personally  I  am  under  considerable  obligations  to  Au- 
gust Lomberg,  Rektor  in  Elberfeld.  His  Prdparationen 
zu  deutschen  Gedichten  for  the  purposes  of  instruction 
in  schools  has  been  a  lantern  to  my  way  and  a  light  unto 
my  path  on  the  somewhat  rugged  slopes  of  the  German 
Parnassus.  August  Lomberg's  is  the  hand  which  has 
stayed  my  often  stumbling  feet  when  I  first  aspired  to 
Goethe  and  Schiller,  deities  sitting  enthroned  aloft  and 
remote.  Guides  to  poetry  are  irritating  books  in  one's  own 
language.  What  a  poet  has  to  say,  and  what  he  means, 
are  strictly  private  matters  between  the  reader  and  him- 
self. The  views  of  a  third  person  may  even  be  regarded 
as  an  intrusion,  not  to  say  an  impertinence.  But  when 
you  are  struggling  with  the  verbal  intricacies  of  a  new 
tongue,  guides  to  knowledge  assume  a  very  different  light. 
So,  I  repeat,  I  am  under  many  obligations  to  August 
Lomberg,  Rektor  in  Elberfeld.  As  so  often  happens  with 
German  authors,  he  has  taught  me  more  incidentally 
than  the  surface  content  of  his  works.  The  Rektor  has 
clearly  a  complete  and  painstaking  acquaintance  with  the 
whole  range  of  German  literature.  But  his  observations 
concerning  the  poets  were,  to  me  at  least,  of  less  value 
than  the  revelation  of  his  own  type  of  mind  and  general 
outlook  on  life. 

August  Lomberg  is  a  garrulous  writer.     His  explana- 

223 


224.  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

tions  are  largely  historical  as  well  as  literary.  Every  line 
breathes  a  narrow  and  aggressive  patriotism  of  the  type 
which  has  made  the  name  of  Germany  detested.  The 
great  poets  of  the  Liberation  period  have  sung  both  of 
freedom  and  oppression  on  a  note  which  rings  clear  and 
true  to  any  lover  of  liberty.  The  Elberfeld  Rektor,  com- 
menting on  this  verse  long  before  19 14,  can  only  do  so  in 
terms  of  abuse  of  France.  To  him  a  poet  is  really  im- 
portant, not  for  some  immortal  gift  to  the  sum-total  of 
the  world's  truth  and  beauty,  but  for  the  degree  to  which 
he  may  have  added  new  stops  to  the  full-sounding  organ 
swelling  the  note  of  German  excellence.  The  ironical  anti- 
patriotic  strain  in  Heine  fills  the'  Rektor  with  undisguised 
horror.  So  great  is  his  reprobation  of  Heine  as  a  world 
citizen,  that  he  can  with  difficulty  begin  to  do  justice  to 
him  as  a  poet.  And  though  like  Wordsworth's  Nun  he  is 
breathless  with  adoration  before  the  genius  of  Goethe,  I 
more  than  suspect  that  at  heart  Goethe's  indifference  to 
patriotic  questions  is  a  sore  trial  to  him. 

These  volumes  of  Lomberg's  are  well-known  school- 
books  in  Germany.  Hence  their  value  as  indicating  a 
certain  trend  of  thought,  li  the  English  are  ever  to  form 
a  reasoned  judgment  of  the  Germans,  it  is  essential  to  un- 
derstand something  of  that  peculiar  herbage  on  which  the 
minds  of  teachers  and  pupils  alike  have  been  pastured. 
But  Herr  Lomberg  has  not  been  content  to  rest  on  his 
laurels  as  regards  a  critical  study  of  the  German  classics. 
War  poetry  has  also  claimed  his  attention  and  his  ex- 
planations. One  afternoon  in  a  bookshop  I  stumbled 
by  chance  on  a  volume  of  German  war  poetry.  I  bought 
it  and  went  on  my  way  rejoicing.  I  knew  something  by 
then  of  the  general  outlook  of  my  friend  the  Rektor's 


THE  GERMAN  ^'IEW  OF  ENGLAND       225 

mind,  and  felt  sure  that  his  observations  on  the  World- 
War  would  be  worth  reading.    So  indeed  they  proved. 

The  poems  themselves  were  of  very  poor  quality. 
Nothing  remotely  comparable  to  the  verse  of  Rupert 
Brooke  or  Julian  Grenfell  or  of  half  a  dozen  other  Eng- 
lish writers  adorned  these  drab  pages.  Unless  Germany 
has  produced  something  better  than  the  mediocre  collec- 
tion brought  together  by  the  Rektor,  her  inferiority  in  one 
respect  at  least  to  England  is  outstanding.  Leaving  lit- 
erary values  aside,  the  normal  note  struck  was  one  of 
a  boastful  and  irritating  patriotism.  The  early  poems, 
written  in  the  days  when  Germany  was  still  flushed  by 
hopes  of  a  speedy  and  overwhelming  victor}^  are  noisy 
and  aggressive.  One  writer  exults  over  the  air  raids. 
"We  have  flying  ships,  they  have  none,"  he  shouts  stri- 
dently. No  less  great  is  the  enthusiasm  for  the  U-boat  ex- 
ploits. The  limits  of  degradation  were  reached  by  a 
poem  about  a  pro-German  fish  in  the  North  Sea.  The 
fish  kept  company  with  a  U-boat  and  followed  the  various 
sinkings  with  great  interest.  One  day  the  U-boat  sank 
first  a  cargo  of  sugar,  next  of  lemons,  thirdly  of  rum.  The 
fish  brewed  a  toddy  of  these  various  ingredients,  and 
drank  tipsy  toasts  to  the  U-boat.  I  suppose  the  poem 
was  intended  to  be  funny.  Of  humour  it  had  none.  The 
mentality  it  revealed  was  amazing. 

As  the  first  hopes  of  easy  victory  evaporated,  a  note 
of  stress  and  anguish  replaces  that  of  the  original  bluster. 
A  poem  on  Ypres  was  noticeable  in  this  respect.  But  the 
particular  interest  of  the  book  lay  to  me  in  the  Rektor's 
explanations  about  the  English.  A  fount  of  venom  over- 
flows whenever  the  name  of  Britain  is  mentioned.  He  sets 
forth  in  his  own  inimitable  way  how  England,  owing  to 


226  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

her  acute  jealousy  of  Germany,  had  deliberately  provoked 
the  war,  England's  sordid  anxieties  about  her  menaced 
conmiercial  supremacy  lay  at  the  root  of  this  action.  Hav- 
ing plotted  war  and  declared  it  at  her  own  time,  she  then 
proceeded  to  wage  it  on  the  most  barbarous  lines.  Eng- 
lish soldiers  murdered  the  wounded,  concealed  machine 
guns  in  their  Red  Cross  wagons,  and  immolated  whole 
platoons  of  innocent  German  soldiers  by  an  abominable 
misuse  of  the  white  flag.  The  wickedness,  the  perfidy, 
the  treachery  of  England,  the  outrages  committed  by  her 
against  every  law  of  God  and  man — the  Rektor  lashes 
himself  into  a  white  heat  on  these  themes.  No  less  ful- 
some and  subservient  is  the  writer  in  his  praise  of  the 
Kaiser  and  the  Crown  Prince.  Germany's  passion  for 
peace,  a  peace  destroyed  only  by  the  intrigues  of  a  jealous 
and  wicked  world,  is  enlarged  on  over  and  over  again. 

This  book,  like  its  predecessors,  is  intended  for  use  in 
schools.  We  can  form  some  judgment,  therefore,  of  the 
facts  and  fancies  which  writers  of  the  Lomberg  type  thrust 
as  historical  truth  on  the  rising  generation.  The  in- 
fluence of  such  statements  can  hardly  be  exaggerated, 
and  much  similar  poison  has  flowed  through  the  whole 
German  school  system.  German  school  literature  is  a  real 
mine  of  information  to  any  one  who  wants  to  study  the 
root  causes  of  latter-day  German  mentality.  Little  won- 
der that  animosities  and  misunderstandings  rend  nations 
in  twain  when  truth  is  subordinated  to  the  worst  pur- 
poses of  political  and  interested  propaganda.  Children 
are  malleable  stuff,  and  certain  long-sighted  Teutons 
realised  perfectly  that  what  is  driven  into  a  child  in  the 
first  impressionable  years  abides  through  life. 

The  accident  of  improving  my  limited  knowledge  of  the 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       227 

German  language  brought  me  in  contact  with  primers  and 
readers  covering  all  standards  and  classes.  In  making  my 
way  from  the  Child's  First  Reader  to  the  volumes  in  use  in 
High  Schools,  I  learnt  a  good  deal  more  than  the  actual 
study  of  words  and  grammar.  From  the  Infants'  to  the 
Upper  Standards  one  note  was  struck  again  and  again 
with  monotonous  regularity — praise  of  the  Army,  glori- 
fication of  the  Hohenzollerns,  I  came  into  rapid  conflict 
with  my  Child's  First  Reader  when  on  the  first  page  I 
was  confronted  with  a  little  poem  saying  that,  though  a 
tiny  child,  my  great  aim  in  life  should  be  to  shoot  straight 
and  grow  up  into  a  fine  soldier.  Then  came  a  fulsome 
hymn  to  the  Kaiser  swearing  lifelong  fidelity  to  that  noble 
man.  Then  followed  a  series  of  short  stories,  no  less 
fulsome,  about  the  goodness  and  greatness  of  the  Royal 
Family.  The  book  of  course  included  other  material,  but 
glorification  of  the  Hohenzollerns  permeated  its  pages, 
and  the  same  thing  repeated  itself  exactly  in  all  the  follow- 
ing standards. 

Thoroughly  bored  with  the  Child's  Reader,  I  tried  some 
of  the  more  advanced  books  only  to  find  an  elaborated 
edition  of  the  same  theme.  One  priceless  story  in  a  mid- 
dle-standard book  told  a  marvellous  tale  about  the  ad- 
ventures of  a  humble  family  in  Berlin,  the  Empress,  the 
Emperor's  daughter,  and  a  cow.  The  curtain  rises  on  a 
child  weeping  bitterly  in  a  Berlin  park.  The  beautiful 
and  tender-hearted  Princess  drives  by  in  a  glittering 
phaeton  lined  with  plush  and  drawn  by  two  spanking 
ponies.  Flinging  the  reins  to  a  groom,  she  hastens  to  the 
assistance  of  poverty  in  distress.  A  tale  of  woe  is  in  due 
course  unfolded.  A  family,  humble  but  virtuous,  have 
lost  a  cow  on  which  the  entire  prosperity  of  the  house- 


228  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

hold  pivoted.  The  Princess  comforts  the  weeping  child, 
gives  her  money,  and  says  that  though  the  matter  lies  be- 
yond her  powers,  her  mother  will  certainly  call  and  deal 
with  the  cow  situation.  The  Princess  is  as  good  as  her 
word.  To  the  stupefaction  of  the  district,  a  royal  car- 
riage containing  the  Empress  visits  the  humble  home 
the  next  day.  The  Empress  administers  more  consola- 
tion; virtue  is  to  be  upheld  in  the  hour  of  trial.  A  cow 
is  following  immediately  from  the  royal  farm;  indeed 
it  is  on  its  way,  lowing,  so  to  speak,  at  the  moment  in 
the  streets  of  Berlin.  The  anxieties  of  the  family  con- 
sequently will  be  at  an  end.  The  paralysed  couple,  fall- 
ing flat  on  their  faces,  stammer  suitable  words  of  grati- 
tude and  praise.  Thanks  to  the  cow  and  the  prestige  at- 
taching to  it,  the  family  fortunes  prosper  exceedingly. 
The  whole  district  tumbles  over  itself  in  the  effort  to 
drink  a  glass  of  Imperial  milk.  But  unhappily  one  day 
the  woman  is  knocked  down  and  mortally  hurt  in  a  street 
accident.  Lying  in  the  hospital  at  the  point  of  death, 
the  matron  sees  there  is  something  on  her  mind.  On 
inquiry  the  patient  replies  that  if  only  once  again  she 
could  see  her  benefactress,  the  Empress,  and  hold  her 
hand,  she  would  die  content.  The  matron,  being  ap- 
parently a  person  of  ample  leisure,  sets  ofif  at  once  to  the 
palace  to  find  the  Empress.  She  is  interviewed  by  a 
lady-in-waiting,  who  declares  it  is  impossible  for  her  to 
see  the  august  one.  Unfortunately  it  happens  to  be 
Prince  Joachim's  birthday  and  the  festivities  in  connec- 
tion with  it  are  about  to  begin;  the  Empress  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  disturbed.  But  the  stout-hearted  matron  is  not 
to  be  daunted  by  any  lady-in-waiting  or  any  birthday 
party.    She  gives  battle  vigorously  on  behalf  of  her  dying 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       229 

patient.  "Who  are  you,"  she  says  reprovingly,  "to  stand 
between  the  mother  of  her  country  and  the  humblest  of 
her  children."  The  lady-in-waiting,  routed  and  over- 
whelmed, retires  hastily  to  tell  the  Empress.  Her  dis- 
comfiture is  completed  by  grave  reprimands  from  the 
august  one  that  any  time  should  have  been  wasted  at  so 
critical  a  moment  in  bringing  the  facts  to  her  knowledge. 
Poor  Prince  Joachim  is  caught  in  the  backwash  of  these 
events.  His  birthday  party  is  wrecked.  The  Empress 
hurries  off  to  the  bedside  of  the  dying  woman,  but  not 
before  the  table  groaning  under  the  weight  of  Joachim's 
birthday  cakes  and  flowers  has  been  stripped  of  half  its 
adornments.  With  her  arms  full  of  roses  the  Empress 
enters  the  hospital  ward.  The  expiring  patient  gives  a 
cry  of  joy  and,  after  an  exchange  of  suitable  sentiments, 
dies,  holding  the  Kaiserin's  hand.  Even  after  death  the 
connection  of  the  humble  family  with  the  Hohenzollerns 
is  maintained.  Even  more  permanent  than  the  prestige 
conferred  by  the  cow  is  the  prestige  of  the  tombstone, 
erected  in  the  cemetery  at  the  Imperial  expense,  with  an 
inscription  bearing  the  Empress's  name. 

Other  stories  no  less  grotesque  redound  to  the  credit 
of  the  Emperor  or  the  gallantry  of  the  Crown  Prince. 
Home  workers  were  marked  down  as  the  special  preserve 
of  the  Crown  Princess.  Sweated  industries  in  Berlin 
might  in  fact  exist  to  afford  a  channel  for  the  altruistic 
impulses  of  the  royal  lady.  One  by  one  the  various  key 
points  of  the  Hohenzollern  family  were  dealt  with  in  this 
fashion.  The  glorification  of  the  Army  went  on  as  steadily 
side  by  side. 

All  this,  of  course,  is  systematic  propaganda  carried 
out  with  characteristic  thoroughness   and,  be  it  added, 


230  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

clumsiness.  For  even  among  the  Germans  it  failed  in 
many  cases  to  carry  conviction.  I  remonstrated  with  my 
Fraulein — herself  a  school  teacher :  "How  can  you  bring 
your  children  up  on  this  wretched  stuff;  with  a  country 
like  yours  so  rich  in  history  and  legend,  surely  there  is 
something  more  inspiring  to  teach  than  this  nonsense 
about  cows  and  sweated  workers?"  Fraulein  shrugged 
her  shoulders.  The  ferment  of  the  revolution  was  work- 
ing in  her  naturally  liberal  mind,  and  the  unaccustomed 
liberty  of  thought  and  action  which  the  revolution  had 
brought  in  its  wake  moved  her  not  a  little.  But  she 
found  it  difficult  to  part  with  the  sheet  anchors  of  the 
past,  and  respect  for  the  Imperial  family  was  screwed 
very  tightly  into  the  average  professional  German.  She 
admitted  the  stories  were  stupid,  but  said  that  the  Kaiser 
was  the  symbol  of  Germany's  greatness  and  they  had 
always  been  taught  to  revere  him.  Since  the  revolution 
the  Social  Democrats  have  made  an  end  of  Kaiser  worship 
in  the  schools.  Pictures  and  portraits  have  vanished.  All 
totems  of  the  faith  have  disappeared.  Apparently  the 
children  were  very  much  upset  when  they  were  first  for- 
bidden to  sing  hymns  to  the  Kaiser.  There  were  tears 
when  the  portraits  were  removed.  The  German  mind, 
naturally  docile,  yearns  for  some  concrete  expression  of 
faith  to  which  it  can  rally.  Of  all  fields  schools  offer 
the  greatest  scope  to  the  corrupting  influence  of  propa- 
ganda. And  through  the  schools  Imperial  Germany  twist- 
ed and  distorted  the  spirit  of  the  people  with  consequences 
no  less  dire  to  themselves  than  to  the  rest  of  the  world. 
One  of  the  irritating  facts  about  Germany  to-day  is 
that  she  refuses  to  say  she  is  sorry.  We  English  are  out- 
raged by  the  fact  that  no  sense  of  guilt  or  of  moral  re- 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       231 

sponsibility  appears  to  have  touched  the  spirit  of  the 
people.  It  is  not  a  question  of  dragging  Germany  about 
in  a  white  sheet  and  a  candle  from  shrine  to  shrine,  but 
cf  some  guarantee  that  there  shall  be  no  repetition  of 
events  so  lamentable.  The  best  guarantee  for  the  future 
is  a  clear  recognition  of  what  was  wrong  in  the  past. 
Truth  permeates  very  slowly  through  German  mentality, 
and  few  Germans  seem  to  realise  that  they  or  their 
rulers  have  brought  the  world  to  the  very  brink  of  ruin; 
that  millions  of  lives  have  perished  as  the  result  of  their 
insensate  ambitions.  They  are  conscious,  painfully  con- 
scious of  the  miseries  of  Germany  to-day.  But  that  civil- 
isation as  a  whole  is  staggering  under  the  blow  they  dealt 
it — this  aspect  of  the  situation  apparently  never  strikes 
them.  Facts  which  jump  to  our  eyes  as  English  people 
make  no  more  impression  on  them  than  they  would  on  a 
blind  man.  Over  and  over  again  I  have  been  baffled  by 
coming  up  against  a  blank  wall  of  non-comprehension  as 
regards  circumstances  about  which  there  is  no  dispute. 

A  personal  experience  in  this  sense,  at  once  exasperating 
and  amusing,  overtook  me  on  a  journey  between  Cologne 
and  Paris.  I  shared  my  cabin  in  the  sleeping-car  with  a 
German  lady  from  Cassel,  a  typical  fair-haired,  solid- 
looking  Prussian.  We  •  exchanged  the  ordinary  polite- 
nesses of  travellers  thrown  together  on  the  road.  I  was 
interested  to  hear  that  not  only  did  the  lady  conduct  a 
large  business  enterprise  in  Cassel,  but  that  she  was  a 
prop  of  the  Volkspartei  and  took  a  keen  interest  in  pol- 
itics. She  spoke  of  Bolshevism  and  the  Red  Peril  wuth 
the  fear  and  disgust  always  noticeable  in  the  German 
Bourgeoisie.  The  train  by  which  we  were  travelling 
crossed  the  devastated  area  in  the  night.     Before  going 


232  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

to  bed  my  companion  asked  me  whether  we  should  see 
anything  of  the  ravaged  districts.  I  replied  that  I  thought 
it  would  be  too  dark  for  any  view  of  the  country.  It 
happened,  however,  that  I  woke  up  at  3  a.m.  and,  drawing 
the  blind,  found  we  were  just  moving  out  of  Peronne. 
It  was  a  grey  July  dawn,  with  driving  rain,  which  in- 
tensified the  unspeakable  desolation  of  the  Somme.  Tragic 
beyond  words  were  the  massacred  orchards.  In  some 
cases  the  stumps  of  trees  not  wholly  cut  through  were 
throwing  up  fresh  leaves  in  a  painful  effort  after  new 
life.  My  heart  was  stirred  at  the  thought  of  my  Prus- 
sian stable  companion  slumbering  peacefully  in  the  bunk 
above.  She  had  wanted  to  see  devastations ;  devastations 
she  should  see. 

"Gnadige  Frau,"  I  said  in  a  firm  loud  voice,  "wake 
up.  We  are  in  the  middle  of  the  devastated  area,  you  had 
better  look  at  it."  Sounds  as  though  a  person  had  been 
disturbed  from  deep  sleep  issued  from  the  top  berth. 
Personally  I  do  not  like  to  think  what  I  should  have  said 
or  done  had  a  strange  woman  in  the  train  woke  me  up  at 
3  A.M.  But  Prussian  docility  responded  to  an  order. 
Gnadige  Frau  got  down  meekly  from  her  berth  and  es- 
tablished herself  at  the  window.  A  suitable  flow  of  ex- 
clamations and  adjectives  then  took  place:  "entsetzlich," 
"furchtbar,"  "schrecklich,"  "bose,"  and  so  on.  Com- 
fortaljly  wrapped  up  in  my  bunk  I  surveyed  the  scene 
with  virtuous  satisfaction,  feeling  that  I  was  bringing 
home  the  war  to  one  Prussian  at  least  in  an  entirely  right 
spirit  and  manner.  Gnadige  Frau,  however,  turned  my 
flank  with  the  military  efficiency  of  her  race.  To  my  in- 
tense disgust  I  found  that  the  text  I  had  provided  by  this 
view  of  the  Somme  only  led  to  an  elaborate  sermon  on 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       233 

the  devastations  of  the  Russians  in  East  Prussia.  "You 
cannot  imagine  what  awful  things  were  done  by  those  ter- 
rible Cossacks,"  said  the  lady,  "and  how  our  poor  cities 
were  ruined.  The  rich  German  towns  have  had  to  become 
godparents  to  whole  districts  in  the  devastated  area." 
She  rattled  on  in  this  sense  as  though  the  German  legions 
had  never  set  foot  in  France.  I  replied  tartly  that  I  hoped 
the  trifling  inconveniences  experienced  in  East  Prussia 
might  afford  some  scale  by  which  she  could  measure  the 
sufferings  of  France,  but  I  could  only  feel  my  moral  les- 
son had  miscarried  sadly.  Still,  I  got  her  out  of  her  bunk 
at  3  A.M.  and  the  morning  was  not  only  wet  but  chilly. 

I  have  mentioned  this  story  because  it  is  very  typical  of 
the  average  German  obtuseness  which  has  an  exasperating 
effect  on  their  former  enemies.  We  are  bound,  however, 
to  try  and  study  patiently  the  root  causes  of  this  vast  moral 
myopia,  because  in  it  lies  the  key  to  the  whole  German  at- 
titude to  the  war.  This  myopia  cannot  be  appreciated 
without  some  grasp  of  the  real  points  of  failure  in  the 
German  character.  During  the  war  they  haunted  our 
imaginations  as  wily  and  strenuous  children  of  the  devil. 
In  fact  they  are  a  very  stupid,  very  insensitive,  very  docile 
people.  Their  ideas  are  as  limited  and  often  as  absurd 
as  those  which  people  the  nursery.  Still  worse,  they  are 
incapable  apparently  of  understanding  what  other  races 
think  and  feel.  They  have  many  excellent  qualities,  and 
an  admirable  capacity  for  hard  work  and  patient  research. 
But  they  do,  I  believe,  possess  three  more  skins  than  the 
ordinary  man.  Mixed  up  with  the  docility  and  unlimited 
power  for  submission  to  authority,  runs  a  considerable 
strain  of  brutality  which  throws  back  to  the  unpleasant 
habits  of  the  remote  Germanic  tribes.     They  can  be  and 


234.  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

are  very  brutal  to  ^^ch  other,  as  well  as  to  their  enemies. 
People  so  constituted  wer&  doomed  to  become  the  tools  of 
miscreants   in   high  places. 

The  average  German,  for  all  his  powers  of  hard  work 
and  his  marvels  of  applied  science,  is  at  bottom  little 
better  than  a  stupid  child.  His  docility,  his  credulity,  his 
lack  of  any  real  subtlety  of  spirit  have  left  him  at  the 
mercy  of  the  monstrous  theories  preached  and  practised 
by  the  ruling  military  class.  Like  a  child  he  believed  all 
he  was  told ;  like  a  child  he  was  immensely  proud  of  the 
vainglorious  bombast  of  military  trappings.  Children  too, 
it  must  be  remembered,  can  be  both  cruel  and  callous. 
Unless  this  attitude  of  mind  is  realised,  the  riddle  of  Ger- 
man mentality  appears  as  insoluble.  But  granted  a  docile 
and  stupid  people,  governed  by  a  ruthless  military  class 
endowed  with  the  same  practical  diligence  and  ability  as 
the  mass  of  the  nation,  and  no  less  insensitive  to  the  finer 
issues  of  the  spirit,  all  that  has  happened  falls  into  place. 

For  years  past  a  certain  view  of  England  as  a  sinister 
and  aggressive  power  was  preached  steadily  for  their  own 
ends  by  the  military  party.  On  the  outbreak  of  war  the 
German  people  were  told  that  England  was  bent  on  the 
destruction  of  their  country.  They  were  fed  on  tales  of 
atrocities  and  horrors.  It  was  represented  to  them  that 
Germany  was  fighting  for  her  life  a  war  of  defence. 
Even  in  a  country  like  our  own,  in  which  liberty  is  an 
old-established  principle,  the  censorship  and  other  condi- 
tions imposed  by  war  resulted  in  a  great  darkening  of 
truth  and  knowledge.  But  in  a  country  like  Germany, 
with  no  representative  government,  with  no  freedom,  with 
a  Press  wholly  subservient  to  the  ruling  junta,  it  is  not 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       235 

astonishing  that  the  people  as  a  whole  blundered  on  to 
ever  lower  depths  of  ignorance  and  prejudice. 

I  have  described  the  sort  of  food  on  which  the  German 
school  child  is  reared.  No  less  instructive  are  the  Ger- 
man memoirs  which  have  been  published  recently,  for 
they  show  in  turn  the  view  impressed  on  the  adult  pop- 
ulation. Bethmann-Hollweg,  Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  Lu- 
dendorff,  Bernstorff,  Hindenburg,  have  all  had  their  say 
on  the  war.  With  the  exception  of  Hindenburg,  who 
observes  a  generous  reticence  about  his  colleagues,  the 
general  tone  of  these  memoirs  is  one  of  acrimonious  con- 
troversy. One  is  reminded  of  a  group  of  naughty  school- 
boys caught  out  in  some  misdeed,  each  saying,  "Please, 
teacher,  it  was  the  other  fellow."  Admiral  von  Tirpitz's 
Recollections  is  the  longest  and  most  garrulous  of  these 
volumes.  It  is  a  book  of  absorbing  interest,  and  throws 
a  flood  of  light  on  the  origins  of  the  war.  Here  we  see 
laid  bare  the  whole  spirit  which  provoked  the  conflict. 
Here,  too,  we  see  that  even  among  the  German  govern- 
ing class,  this  spirit  in  the  extreme  form  represented  by 
Admiral  Tirpitz  himself  met  in  some  quarters  with  oppo- 
sition. If  one  person  deserves  to  be  hanged  in  connection 
with  the  war,  tben  the  halter  should  surely  be  placed  round 
the  neck  of  the  old  Admiral. 

Von  Tirpitz  reveals  himself  in  these  pages  as  an  able 
but  most  unsympathetic  figure.  He  la,ys  the  lash  gener- 
ously about  his  colleagues,  and  the  Emperor  in  particu- 
lar is  not  spared.  Creator  of  the  German  Navy,  he  lays 
bare  the  whole  .ruthless  spirit  animating  the  German  war 
lords.  English  readers  will  notice  with  interest,  and 
perhaps  some  surprise,  the  view  of  themselves  and  their 
country  on  which  the  Admiral  enlarges.     According  to 


236  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

Von  Tirpitz,  the  growth  of  the  German  Navy  was  not 
only  directed  towards  making  any  English  attack  on 
German  trade  risky,  but  served  the  philanthropic  pur- 
pose of  supporting  the  non- Anglo-Saxon  races  in  their 
struggle  for  freedom  against  the  intolerable  dictatorship 
of  British  sea-power.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  special  mission 
of  the  German  Empire  to  free  the  world  from  the 
strangling  tyranny  of  the  Anglo-Saxons.  The  English 
reader  learns  with  surprise  as  he  makes  his  way  through 
these  volumes  how  ruthless  was  the  spirit  in  which  Eng- 
land marked  Germany  down  for  destruction.  Finally, 
through  craft  and  Machiavellian  principles  of  the  worst 
kind,  she  accomplished  her  end.  While  German  states- 
men were  weak,  vacillating,  and  hopelessly  pacific,  a  suc- 
cession of  English  Governments,  Radical  no  less  than 
Conservative,  animated  one  and  all  by  the  same  fell  pur- 
pose, only  waited  for  the  appropriate  moment  to  fall  on 
the  European  Simon  Pure. 

Lord  Haldane  during  his  visit  to  Berlin  in  191 2  figures 
as  a  skilled  and  determined  mock  negotiator,  adamant  as 
to  concessions  on  the  English  side,  but  bent  on  sowing 
discord  among  German  statesmen  and  reducing  the  fleet 
to  impotence.  Tirpitz  accuses  him  of  an  evil  conscience. 
Did  not  Lord  Haldane  shut  his  eyes  to  the  wholly  pacific 
intentions  of  Germany  and  invent  a  Berlin  war  party  with 
which  to  inflame  public  opinion  in  England? 

The  Admiral  speaks  feelingly  of  the  "armed  battue" 
against  Germany.  He  lays  his  hand  on  his  heart  and 
declares  that  in  19 14  the  German  Empire  was  "the  least 
preoccupied  of  all  the  Great  Powers  with  possibilities  of 
war."  Yet  in  spite  of  "our  suicidal  love  of  peace"  the 
world  would  persist  in  laying  the  guilt  of  all  that  had 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       237 

happened  on  Germany.  "It  is  really  extraordinary  how 
unpopular  we  are,"  cries  the  Admiral  naively  in  one  of 
his  letters.  But  he  sticks  to  his  point.  The  historical  guilt 
of  England  is  irrefutably  clear.  The  "old  pirate  state" 
has  once  again  torn  Europe  to  pieces.  Thanks  to  the 
most  brutal  methods  she  has  secured  a  victory,  and  liberty 
and  independence  have  perished.  But  the  Admiral  is 
not  only  concerned  to  abuse  England.  He  deals  faith- 
fully with  his  own  countrymen.  If  on  the  one  hand  Eng- 
lish readers  obtain  a  fresh  insight  through  German  eyes 
into  their  own  villainies,  they  obtain  information  possibly 
less  fantastic  as  to  the  discord  which  raged  inside  the 
German  war  machine.  If  in  the  interests  of  truth  we  are 
compelled  to  say  that  the  Germans  overrated  our  powers 
of  conducting  a  war  with  supreme  efficiency,  it  is  clear 
that  we  were  no  less  at  fault  in  attributing  super  qualities 
to  our  enemies. 

When  these  various  memoirs  are  read  side  by  side  and 
compared,  they  reveal  strife,  division,  and  hesitation  of  a 
remarkable  kind  in  the  higher  direction  of  the  war.  Tir- 
pitz,  as  head  of  the  war  party,  writes  with  extraordinary 
bitterness  of  Bethmann-Hollweg  the  Chancellor.  No 
words  are  bad  enough  for  the  man  who  had  struggled 
sincerely  enough,  according  to  his  lights,  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  peace  between  England  and  Germany.  His  hesi- 
tations, vacillations,  errors  of  policy  are  dealt  with  in  a 
ferocious  spirit.  But  the  Army  and  even  the  Navy  do 
not  escape  severe  criticism.  "The  end  of  July  1914  found 
us  in  a  state  of  chaos,"  writes  the  Admiral.  The  gen- 
erals made  "frightful  mistakes,"  the  war  was  one  of 
"missed  opportunities,"  the  Navy  in  particular  was  never 
allowed  to  do  its  work.     The  troops  were  heroic,  but 


238  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

"the  hereditary  faults  of  the  German  people  and  the  de- 
structive elements  among  them"  led  to  the  downfall  of 
the  whole  nation. 

The  popular  view  of  Germany,  which  most  English 
people  held  during  the  war,  was  that  for  forty  years  the 
German  nation  from  the  Emperor  downwards  had  pur- 
sued the  definite  and  determined  end  of  the  destruction 
of  England.  The  real  situation  appears  to  have  been 
far  more  complex.  To  credit  the  Emperor  and  his  en- 
tourage with  an  inflexibility  of  purpose  so  great  is  to 
rate  their  capacity  far  too  high.  The  mediocre  states- 
men of  our  own  generation  were  not  Bismarcks.  They 
were  incapable  of  the  far  vision,  the  sinister  purpose,  the 
iron  will  of  the  old  Chancellor.  Unlike  him  they  did  not 
know  when  to  stop.  An  influential  section  among  the 
soldiers  was  certainly  bent  on  a  war  of  aggression  and 
pursued  this  end  with  unfaltering  determination.  They 
had  considerable  influence  both  among  the  Press  and 
the  professors.  Consequently  they  loomed  large  in  the 
public  eye.  But  even  among  the  governing  class,  as 
Tirpitz's  angry  complaints  reveal,  there  were  certain  weak- 
kneed  statesmen  who  were  anxious  to  pursue  a  pacific 
policy.  As  for  the  German  nation  as  a  whole,  the  un- 
paralleled growth  of  the  Socialist  party  during  recent 
years  proves  that  the  views  of  the  German  militarists 
were  meeting  with  considerable  opposition  among  sections 
of  their  own  countrymen. 

The  militarists  largely  controlled  the  machine  and  were 
therefore  in  the  stronger  position.  An  autocratic  form  of 
government  and  an  Executive  divorced  from  all  control 
by  Parliament  made  the  Socialist  vote,  large  though  it 
was,  of  no  practical  value  in  determining  policy.     The 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       239 

General  Election  of  1912,  when  the  Socialists  and  Pro- 
gressives who  had  definitely  challenged  the  Chauvinism 
of  the  Government  secured  considerable  gains  in  the 
Reichstag,  caused  dismay  in  military  circles.  It  is  clear 
that  the  dread  of  democratic  control  was  one  of  the  causes 
which  impelled  the  soldiers  to  bring  matters  to  a  head. 
A  shadow  had  fallen  on  their  power  which  a  successful 
war,  so  they  thought,  would  dispel.  Had  Germany 
possessed  a  democratic  constitution  .  which  would  have 
given  due  weight  and  place  to  the  anti-military  elements, 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  v^^ar  would  ever  have  oc- 
curred. It  was  a  race  between  the  forces  making  re- 
spectively for  peace  and  for  aggression,  and  time  was  on 
the  side  of  the  former. 

The  military  party  consequently  forced  the  pace  and 
precipitated  the  conflict.  That  on  the  outbreak  of  war  the 
whole  German  nation,  Socialists  included,  closed  its  ranks 
and  presented  a  united  front  to  the  enemy  is  natural 
enough.  The  view  of  the  defensive  war  was  widespread, 
and  German  myopia  could  not  see  straight  about  the 
threatening  character  of  the  armaments  which  had  been 
piled  up.  But  between  the  guilt  of  the  rulers,  which  is 
black  indeed,  and  the  guilt  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  wide 
discriminations  should  in  justice  be  made.  If  it  were  not 
so  the  future  outlook,  dark  as  it  is  at  the  moment,  would 
be  quite  hopeless. 

The  part  played  in  the  middle  of  this  welter  by  the 
arrogant  and  inferior  figure  on  the  throne  is  not  easy  to 
determine.  Tlie  Emperor  was  not  necessarily  insincere 
when  he  expressed  his  abstract  desire  for  peace.  But  his 
vanity  was  flattered  by  the  vision  of  himself  as  Supreme 
War  Lord  ashore  and  afloat  of  a  submissive  Europe.    He 


240  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

did  not  necessarily  want  to  fight.  He  wanted  very  much 
to  be  in  a  position  which  enabled  him  to  bully.  Probably 
the  governing  classes  in  Germany  held  much  the  same 
view.  The  Emperor  lent  himself  to  the  creation  of  huge 
armies  and  a  threatening  fleet,  and  then  expressed  sur- 
prise that  his  perpetual  sabre-rattling  and  histrionic  per- 
formances created  anger  and  alarm  throughout  Europe. 
Other  nations  refused  to  think  that  Dreadnoughts  were 
built  as  pets,  or  that  armaments  were  piled  up  for  the 
purposes  of  ceremonial  salutes.  Having  surrounded  him- 
self with  material  of  this  character,  he  was  in  all  prob- 
ability genuinely  appalled  when  the  inevitable  explosion 
occurred.  He  had  no  real  wish  to  trade  with  the  devil,  but 
he  was  always  in  and  out  of  the  shop,  turning  over  the 
wares  and  listening  to  the  flatteries  of  the  salesman.  A 
man  of  his  type  was  bound,  sooner  or  later,  to  become  the 
tool  of  villains  with  a  purpose  clearer  than  his  own. 

Lord  Haldane  in  his  book  Before  the  War  has  given  an 
account,  both  sane  and  dispassionate,  of  the  causes  and 
forces  which  led  up  to  the  struggle.  He  analyses  with 
admirable  clarity  the  weakness  and  the  strength  of  the 
German  machine.  In  a  striking  passage  he  draws  at- 
tention to  a  fact  too  little  realised  by  the  vast  majority 
of  English  people,  namely,  that  highly  organised  though 
the  German  nation  might  be  on  its  lower  levels,  on  the 
top  storey  not  only  confusion  but  chaos  existed.  Instead 
of  a  Cabinet  representing  the  majority  of  an  elected  Par- 
liament to  whom  it  was  bound  to  submit  its  policy,  the 
governing  body  in  Germany  was  an  irresponsible  group 
of  men  animated  by  wholly  divergent  ideas. 

In  the  centre  of  this  group  was  a  vain,  feather-headed 
monarch,  not  devoid  of  good  impulses,  and  at  times  of 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       241 

generous  feeling,  but  cursed  with  an  instability  of  char- 
acter which  made  him  lend  an  ear  first  to  the  promptings 
of  one  counsellor  and  then  of  another.  The  Emperor 
swayed  from  side  to  side  according  to  the  fancy  of  the 
moment;  at  one  time  drawing  close  to  the  war  party,  at 
another  inclining  to  the  more  sober  counsels  of  the  peace 
party.  Such  a  temperament  does  not  improve  with  the 
flight  of  years.  Time  only  deepened  in  the  Emperor's 
mind  the  sense  of  his  own  importance  in  the  eyes  of  God 
and  man.  His  unstable  brain  was  more  and  more  be- 
mused with  ideas  of  power  and  infallibility.  Already  in 
1 89 1  he  had  caused  deep  resentment  throughout  working- 
class  Germany  by  a  speech  to  young  recruits  at  Potsdam. 
He  referred  in  acrimonious  terms  to  the  Socialist  agi- 
tations, and  went  on  to  say :  "I  may  have  to  order  you 
to  shoot  down  your  relations,  your  brothers,  even  your 
parents — which  God  forbid! — but  even  then  you  must 
obey  my  commands  without  murmuring."  Criticism  was 
treasonable;  criticism  was  therefore  not  audible,  but  the 
words  were  never  forgotten  nor  forgiven.  Vanity  and 
megalomania  steer  an  erratic  course,  and  the  consequent 
vagaries  of  German  high  diplomacy  kept  Europe  in  a 
chronic  state  of  nerves  which  deepened  the  general  sense 
of  anxiety  and  suspicion. 

Since  the  revolution  the  diplomatic  documents  in  the 
Berlin  archives  relating  to  the  plot  against  Serbia,  to- 
gether with  the  Emperor's  marginal  notes,  have  been 
published  by  order  of  the  new  German  Government.  The 
war  has  produced  no  volume  more  painful  than  that  of 
Karl  Kautsky  in  which  these  documents  are  set  forth. 
The  revelation  is  of  the  blackest,  so  far  as  the  Emperor 
is  concerned.    His  personal  responsibility  for  creating  the 


242  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

situation  which  led  to  the  war  is  established  beyond  ques- 
tion. His  marginal  notes,  always  foolish  and  often  vulgar, 
are  almost  incredible  in  their  criminal  levity.  The  Em- 
peror comments,  for  instance,  on  the  most  solemn  and 
impressive  of  Sir  Edward  Grey's  warnings  to  the  Ger- 
man Ambassador,  Prince  Lichnowsky,  in  the  words  "the 
low  cur!"  We  watch  this  vain  unstable  figure  flitting 
with  a  lighted  torch  round  the  powder  magazine  of  Eu- 
rope. With  the  lives  of  millions  in  his  hand,  the  mediocre 
intelligence  of  the  Emperor  seemed  unable  to  forecast  the 
elementary  consequences  of  his  own  acts.  At  the  start 
his  sole  object  in  view  was  the  dismemberment  of  Serbia 
and  the  q^eation  of  a  new  Balkan  situation.  The  Ger- 
man Ambassador  in  Vienna,  who  counselled  moderation 
in  the  demands  made  on  the  Serbian  Government,  was 
reprimanded  severely.  William  was  concerned  to  stir  up 
his  more  sluggish  ally,  Austria,  to  warlike  purpose.  If 
Russia  objected — well,  never  mind  about  Russia.  The 
implications  of  a  general  European  war  do  not  seem 
to  have  occurred  to  him.  When  as  huntsman  he  laid  on 
the  hounds,  the  magnitude  of  the  quarry  was  not  ap- 
parent. Later  on,  when  the  chasm  into  which  he  had 
dragged  the  world  dawned  before  him  in  its  appalling 
immensity,  he  shrank  back  aghast  on  the  brink.  But 
too  late.  The  terrible  vitality  of  deeds  had  taken  charge 
of  the  situation  and  hurried  on  the  tragedy  to  its  final 
consummation. 

A  curious  point  arises  not  only  from  the  study  of  the 
Kautsky  documents,  but  of  the  various  German  memoirs 
which  have  appeared.  The  primary  responsibility  of  the 
Emperor  for  staging  the  scene  is  proved  beyond  doubt. 
But  he  was  away  yachting  in  the  weeks  before  the  war, 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       243 

and  it  is  not  clear  with  whom  the  further  responsibility 
rests  for  converting  the  Serbian  intrigue  into  the  wider 
act  of  world  aggression.  At  this  point  history  has  fur- 
ther secrets  to  reveal.  The  Great  General  Staff  were  in  all 
probability  determined  not  to  let  slip  so  golden  an  op- 
portunity, and  engineered  matters  in  the  sense  of  war 
during  the  Emperor's  absence. 

Strangely  enough.  Tirpitz,  though  ultimately  more  re- 
sponsible for  the  war  than  any  one  else  in  Germany,  did 
not  want  to  fight  in  August  19 14.  His  fleet  was  not  ready 
and  had  yet  to  attain  its  maximum  strength.  He  de- 
nounces Bethmann-Hollweg's  refusal  of  Sir  Edward 
Grey's  proposed  conference  as  a  capital  blunder.  War  at 
that  moment  should  in  his  opinion  have  been  averted. 
Germany  was  not  sufficiently  prepared.  Further,  the  old 
Admiral  with  great  shrewdness  deplores  the  sabre-rat- 
tling against  England  on  various  occasions.  Do  not  irri- 
tate your  enemy  until  you  are  ready  to  fight  him,  was  his 
principle. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that  Bethmann-Hollweg,  who  had 
always  desired  peace,  seems  to  have  lost  his  head  com- 
pletely in  the  crisis  and  showed  a  fatal  obduracy  which 
might  have  been  expected  from  Tirpitz.  The  conference 
for  which  Sir  Edward  Grey  pressed  would  in  all  prob- 
ability have  avoided  the  war.  Bethmann-Holiweg  wanted 
peace,  yet  he  banged  the  door  on  the  one  possibility  of 
maintaining  it.  One  gathers  the  impression  of  a  group  of 
men  groping  blindly  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice  over  which 
finally  they  hurl  themselves.  But  the  hand  which  pushed 
them  into  decisions,  certainly  unwelcome  to  some  of  the 
actors,  has  yet  to  be  revealed.  We  know  it  must  in  effect 
have  come  from  a  man  or  group  of  men  among  the  mili- 


244  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

tary  party.     The  exact  personalities  are  not  at  present 
clear. 

The  German  memoirs  written  by  statesmen  of  the  old 
regime,  which  throw  so  much  light  incidentally  on  the 
tragedy  of  Europe,  must  be  read  in  detail  in  order  to  ob- 
tain any  real  appreciation  of  their  atmosphere.  Their 
great  value  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  make  the  German 
view  of  England  more  intelligible.  We  are  able  to  meas- 
ure the  vast  distortion  of  truth  as  it  has  reached  the 
average  German,  and  the  profound  misconceptions  under 
which  he  labours.  Exasperated  though  we  may  feel  by 
such  aberrations,  we  begin  to  understand  why  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  German  nation,  trained  from  their  youth 
in  subservience  to  the  ruling  house,  still  believe  they  were 
the  attacked,  not  the  attackers,  in  the  war.  I  have  heard 
recently  of  Germans  meeting  pre-war  English  friends  with 
personal  feelings  quite  unchanged.  The  English  found, 
however,  to  their  bewilderment  that  the  Germans,  out  of 
delicacy  to  their  feelings,  would  not  discuss  the  war — 
it  must  be,  so  they  hinted,  terrible  for  them  to  realise 
the  crimes  England  had  committed  both  in  her  unjusti- 
fiable attack  on  Germany  and  in  her  practical  conduct  of 
the  war.  Naturally  as  English  they  would  desire  to  avoid 
any  reference  to  so  painful  a  subject. 

Hence  Germany's  reluctance  to  say  she  is  sorry.  So 
far  she  will  not  admit  there  is  anything  to  be  sorry  for. 
Never  was  there  a  nation  more  exasperatingly  devoid  of 
the  s])irit  of  self-criticism.  Everything  German  is  per- 
fect in  the  eyes  of  a  German.  In  the  crash  which  has 
overtaken  the  nation  little  realisation  exists  of  the  moral 
issues  involved.  Among  the  Socialist  party  alone  would 
much  difficult  and  unpalatable  truth  appear  to  be  per- 


THE  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  ENGLAND       245 

meating.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Second  International 
held  in  Geneva  during  August  1920,  the  responsibility  of 
the  Kaiser's  Government  for  the  outbreak  of  the  war  was 
admitted  in  precise  terms  by  the  German  Socialists.  The 
wrong  done  to  France  in  1870  in  the  matter  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  the  wrong  done  to  Belgium  in  19 14  and  the  just 
claims  of  reparation,  were  all  acknowledged  and  incor- 
porated into  a  formal  resolution.  Though  the  Bour- 
geoisie may  clasp  their  hands  tightly  over  eyes  and  ears, 
the  Socialists  at  least  have  no  illusions  as  to  the  crimes 
and  follies  of  the  Imperial  Government.  But,  crushed 
as  they  are  by  the  heavy  burthens  of  the  Peace,  they  are 
more  concerned  to  dwell  on  the  trials  of  the  present  than 
the  failures  of  the  past. 

What  we  should  remember,  I  think,  is  that  the  bulk 
of  the  German  nation  did  its  duty  in  the  war  just  as  we 
did  ourselves.  Alongside  the  organised  atrocities  and 
brutalities  which  disgraced  the  higher  direction  of  the 
military  machine,  must  be  set  the  courage  and  self-sac- 
rifice of  large  numbers  of  humble  people.  The  average 
German  fought  for  his  Fatherland  with  a  conviction  just 
as  great  as  that  of  the  average  Frenchman  or  English- 
man. In  view  of  the  rigid  censorship  which  ruled,  it  is 
clear  that  the  rank  and  file  knew  little  or  nothing  of  many 
deeds  which  outraged  the  conscience  of  the  civilised  world. 
They  served  a  bad  cause  with  a  fortitude  from  which  it 
would  be  ungenerous  to  withhold  praise.  The  future 
peace  of  the  world  lies  in  the  hope  that  their  powers  of 
loyalty  and  service  may  be  turned  to  other  and  better 
ends. 

Meanwhile  the  existing  veils  of  ignorance  and  mis- 
conception can  only  be  raised  by  a  frank  and  free  contact 


246  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

of  men  and  women  of  both  nations  who  are  not  afraid  to 
come  together  and  face  facts  however  unpalatable.  These 
distorted  values  can  only  be  redressed  through  a  deter- 
mined effort  to  seek  truth  for  itself  undeterred  by  false 
conceptions  of  national  honour.  A  nation  which  claims 
to  be  great  should  be  great  enough  to  admit  the  wrong  she 
has  done.  Germany  must  learn  to  see  straight  about  her- 
self before  peace  in  the  real  sense  can  be  restored  between 
her  and  nations  who  have  suffered  grievously  through  her 
action.  Peace  is  here  and  now  the  urgent  need  of  the 
world,  but  peace  cannot  live  if  perpetually  pelted  by 
prejudices  and  ignorances.  The  Supreme  Charity  has  not 
left  us  without  guidance  in  this  matter,  and  as  on  another 
famous  occasion,  let  the  man  or  woman  in  the  happy  posi- 
tion of  having  no  fault  come  forward  to  cast  the  first 
stone. 


/> 


CHAPTER  XVI 
WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT? 

It  is  probable  that  at  no  moment  in  the  history  of  the 
world  has  a  spirit  of  disillusion  been  so  widespread  and 
so  profound  as  at  the  present  time.  Not  only  apparently 
have  the  high  ideals  which  sustained  us  during  the  war 
evaporated  completely,  but  they  have  yielded  place  to  a 
sullen  exasperation  and  ill-will  dangerous  in  its  temper  and 
purpose.  Moral  war-weariness  has  sapped  mind  and  body 
to  such  an  extent  that  no  powers  of  resilience  remain. 
Suspicion  as  between  class  and  class  and  nation  and  nation 
corrodes  the  foundations  of  life.  Surly  ill-will  and  a 
wholly  anti-helpful  attitude  permeates  the  grudging  per- 
formance of  essential  social  services.  People  and  classes 
pursue  their  own  ends  with  complete  disregard  as  to  their 
reactions  on  other  sections  of  society.  Self-interest  reigns 
supreme.  The  joy  as  of  comrades  of  the  open  road  faring 
together  in  a  spirit  of  common  service  and  brotherhood 
appears  to  have  vanished.  In  England  unrest  and  dis- 
content wholly  refuse  to  yield  to  the  opportunist  de- 
vices of  a  Government  to  whom  all  principles  are  mere 
questions  of  expediency.  But  England,  mercifully  for 
herself,  whatever  her  spiritual  sickness,  knows  nothing 
of  the  stark  levels  of  practical  misery  and  starvation  on 
to  which  millions  of  continental  people  have  been  driven. 
We  have  no  standard  with  which  to  gauge  misery  and 
hunger  on  a  scale  so  appalling  as  that  which  has  overtaken 

247 


248  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  dwellers  of  Eastern  Europe.  At  times  one  wonders 
how  it  is  that  England,  so  great,  so  generous,  so  mag- 
nanimous in  her  traditional  policy,  has  apparently  neither 
eyes  to  see  nor  ears  to  hear  what  is  going  on.  The  voice 
of  Gladstone  could  once  rouse  the  country  to  a  white 
flame  of  indignation  over  the  sufferings  of  an  oppressed 
people.  But  with  the  tragedy  of  Europe  before  our  eyes ; 
with  women  and  children  perishing  by  the  thousand ;  with 
a  volume  of  discontent  growing  and  surging  among  every 
nationality,  England,  always  the  world's  hope  in  matters 
of  practical  justice,  seems  incapable  of  rousing  herself  to 
action  worthy  of  her  own  great  tradition.  Instead  of  some 
fine  and  generous  appreciation  of  the  world's  woes,  she 
looks  on  dully  and  from  afar. 

America  has  for  the  moment  withdrawn  from  the  Eu- 
ropean chaos.  Her  reasons  for  doing  so  are  intelligible, 
but  the  result  has  been  a  disaster  for  the  rest  of  the 
world.  It  is  not  a  question,  as  so  many  Americans  think, 
of  a  desire  to  exploit  the  better  financial  position  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  because  America  with  many  faults 
and  crudities  has  a  driving  power  of  idealism  behind  her 
— the  same  motive  force  which  brought  her  into  the  war. 
Some  American  business  men  and  supporters  of  the  great 
financial  interests  have  sought — as  is  the  habit  of  their 
kind — to  exploit  the  post-war  situation  to  their  own  profit. 
As  against  this  must  be  set  qualities  of  a  very  different 
character  among  the  mass  of  the  people.  America's  ab- 
sence from  the  European  council -chamber  involves  the 
loss  of  a  great  influence  at  once  restraining  and  construc- 
tive. We  cannot  measure  fully  as  yet  the  infinite  damage 
caused  by  her  withdrawal  from  the  task  of  Reconstruc- 
tion.    We  know,  however,  that  no  blow  since  the  Peace 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    24-9 

has  been  so  severe.  America  was  particularly  fortunate 
in  some  of  the  representatives  sent  to  Europe  during  the 
war — men  of  the  highest  capacity  and  honour.  Through 
her  absence  every  undesirable  force  or  principle  has  gath- 
ered weight.  Conversely  every  force  working  for  good 
has  been  weakened. 

The  rest  of  the  world  looks  on  in  an  attitude  as  help- 
less as  that  of  the  former  combatants,  as  month  by  month 
the  shattered  fabric  of  European  life  sags  yet  wider.  The 
post-war  chaos  appears  so  complete  that  men  turn  from 
it  in  despair.  Moral  disillusion  and  weariness  have  their 
counterparts  in  recklessness  and  wild  extravagance.  There 
is  a  sense  of  an  approaching  Twilight  of  the  Gods;  of  a 
collapse  of  the  foundations  of  society.  Therefore  let  us 
eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  on  the  brink  of  the  chasm  though 
it  be,  before  the  darkness  swallows  us  up. 

How  is  it  that  a  war  fought  for  principles  and  ideals  so 
clear  and  so  noble  as  those  which  animated  us  at  the  out- 
set of  the  struggle  can  have  resulted  in  a  condition  of 
practical  moral  bankruptcy?  Of  that  moral  bankruptcy 
the  Treaty  of  Versailles  is  the  sign  and  witness.  On  the 
plane  of  practical  politics  it  may  be  said  that  the  world 
could  have  survived  the  war,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  it 
can  survive  the  Peace.  Yet  the  Peace  only  registers  the 
sickness  which  has  invaded  our  souls.  Indeed,  from  one 
aspect  it  may  be  asserted  that  the  present  situation,  dark 
and  threatening  though  it  be,  is  not  devoid  of  consola- 
tion of  a  lofty  and  austere  character.  The  moral  bank- 
ruptcy which  has  overtaken  the  world  is  in  itself  the  most 
august  testimony  to  the  inexorable  truth  of  moral  prin- 
ciple. Because  the  light  in  the  spirit  of  man  has  burned 
so  low,  we  are  able  to  estimate  what  darkness  falls  when 


250  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  lamp  is  untrimmed.  The  very  chaos  we  deplore  is  the 
resuh  of  outraged  moral  laws,  neglect  of  which  brings  a 
sure  Nemesis  in  its  train.  Just  in  so  far  as  the  world  has 
forsaken  abiding  standards  of  justice,  truth,  and  mercy, 
the  world  has  been  stricken  down.  We  are  perishing  to- 
day owing  to  failures  in  principle,  and  health  can  only 
return  when  principle  is  no  longer  flouted  but  resumes 
its  reign  over  men's  souls.  The  tricks  and  turns  of  an 
opportunist  policy  cannot  stem  the  rising  flood  of  restless- 
ness and  disgust.  The  world  grows  daily  more  sick  of 
men  who  have  not  sufficient  character  to  make  their  clev- 
erness tolerable.  Thus  viewed,  our  present  confusion  is 
fraught  with  profound  spiritual  significance. 

In  this,  despite  grave  present  peril,  lies  the  chance  of 
salvation.  History  has  never  known  so  great  and  so  ter- 
rible a  testimony  to  the  inexorable  character  of  moral  law, 
and  the  reality  of  Divine  Truth  which  it  is  death  to  chal- 
lenge. Docet  umhra,  and  in  the  darkness  which  has 
fallen,  we  who  stand  in  the  shadow  may  learn  anew 
of  the  vision  which  shines  behind  all  earth-drawn  clouds ; 
and  so,  may  be,  lay  firmer  hold  on  those  forgotten  truths 
which,  alike  to  men  and  nations,  bring  peace  at  the  last. 
If  even  now  the  better  side  of  human  nature  will  rally  to 
the  task  of  rescue,  the  future  may  yet  be  saved.  The  ter- 
rible sufferings  of  those  who  have  fallen  by  the  way  can- 
not be  made  good.  But  if  the  nations  will  rouse  them- 
selves to  make  a  determined  moral  effort,  any  repetition 
of  such  sufferings  may  be  checked. 

The  greatest  and  gravest  charge  which  can  be  brought 
against  Germany  is  not  so  much  that  she  killed  men's 
bodies  and  laid  waste  their  houses  and  lands,  as  that  she 
has  poisoned  the  soul  of  Europe.    The  evil  spirit  let  loose 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    251 

by  the  Prussian  theory  of  life  has  reacted  throughout 
the  world.  It  has  darkened  counsel  and  silenced  the  voice 
of  charity  and  moderation.  Not  to  be  dragged  down  to 
the  level  of  the  person  who  has  wronged  you  is  the  hard- 
est of  all  moral  tests.  It  was  one  which  proved  too  hard 
for  the  conquerors  in  this  war.  The  Peace  was  bound  to 
have  been  very  stern  towards  Germany  and  very  exacting 
in  its  demands.  Severity  was  inherent  in  the  situation. 
Wrongs  had  been  committed  which  called  for  judgment; 
balances  had  to  be  redressed.  The  more  necessary  was 
it,  in  view  of  these  stern  measures,  to  adhere  strictly  to 
principles  of  justice  and  honour  in  our  treatment  of  Ger- 
many; to  give  neither  history  nor  a  defeated  foe  any 
justification  for  the  charge  that  in  the  hour  of  victory 
we  cast  behind  us  principles  for  which  we  fought. 

The  degree  to  which  the  Terms  of  Peace  violated  both 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  conditions  laid  down  in  the  Armi- 
stice is  a  blot  on  the  Treaty  which  must  be  painful  to  all 
honourable  men.  The  Allies  would  have  been  within 
their  rights  in  insisting  on  the  unconditional  surrender  of 
Germany.  But  conditions  having  been  permitted,  they 
should  have  been  adhered  to.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and 
President  Wilson  had  indicated  on  various  occasions  that 
peace  made  with  a  democratic  Germany  would  be  of  a 
different  character  from  a  peace  made  with  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  still  in  power.  But  Germany,  having  rid  her- 
self of  her  Emperor  and  of  her  former  Government,  found 
that  the  treatment  meted  out  to  the  new  Republic  differed 
in  no  particular  from  what  would  have  been  justifiable 
had  the  Emperor  remained  on  the  throne.  The  conscience 
of  the  world  has  been  troubled  by  these  things,  and  by 
an  uneasy  sense  of  undertakings  given  but  not  fulfilled. 


252  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

Those  of  us  who  see  in  the  Peace  a  supreme  failure  in 
constructive  statesmanship  do  not  take  that  view  because 
we  are  pacifists  or  have  some  sentimental  wish  "to  be  kind 
to  Germany."  So  long  as  the  issue  of  the  war  hung  in 
doul)t  it  was  our  duty  to  make  war  to  the  last  man  and 
the  last  shilling.  With  the  evil  spirit  dominating  Imperial 
Germany,  neither  truce  nor  parley  was  possible.  The 
effort  frequently  made  in  pacifist  circles  to  represent  the 
war  as  a  general  dog-fight,  for  which  all  the  nations  in- 
volved have  a  common  responsibility,  is  not  only  bad  his- 
tory but  bad  morality.  Victory  creates,  however,  a  wholly 
new  situation.  War,  in  certain  terrible  cases,  is  the  neces- 
sary prelude  to  a  settlement.  But  of  itself  it  settles  noth- 
ing, any  more  than  an  operation  essential  to  check  the 
spread  of  disease  is  a  natural  or  healthy  process.  The 
surgeon's  knife  is  merely  a  means  to  an  end — the  recovery 
of  normal  life  by  a  normal  and  healthy  body.  The  knife 
is  not  kept  flourished  permanently  over  the  patient's  head 
or  turned  periodically  in  the  wound. 

The  great  charge  against  the  Peace  is  its  failure  to 
envisage  a  normal  and  healthy  life  for  Europe.  Our 
quarrel  against  its  provisions  is  that  they  are  in  many 
cases  fully  as  short-sighted  and  as  lacking  in  imagina- 
tion as  what  Prussians  themselves  might  have  evolved. 
The  precedents  of  Brest-Litovsk,  at  which  we  raised  our 
hands  in  justifiable  horror,  are  not  agreeable  ones  to  fol- 
low. The  fatal  flaw  of  the  Peace  is  that  it  does  not  look 
beyond  the  period  of  punishment  and  reparation  to  an 
ultimate  pacification  of  Europe.  It  lays  down  no  princi- 
ples for  the  establishment  of  good  relations  between  na- 
tions. Its  economic  provisions  are  a  nightmare  calcu- 
lated to  lay  a  strangle-hold  on  any  possible  recovery  of 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  TETE  NIGHT?    253 

European  trade  and  commerce.  With  a  world  crying  out 
for  goods  and  that  increased  production  which  can  alone 
bring  about  a  drop  in  prices,  the  Peace  Treaty  is  directed 
to  keeping  one  of  the  greatest  producers,  namely  Ger- 
many, in  chains,  while  a  group  of  little  states,  erected  as 
military  buffers  of  the  most  futile  character,  are  allowed 
to  distract  themselves  and  their  neighbours  by  the  erec- 
tion of  tariff  walls  behind  which  they  carry  on  crazy 
forms  of  economic  guerilla  warfare. 

Let  us  admit  that  the  difficulties  of  the  Peace  were 
quite  enormous  and  that  mistakes  and  blunders  were  in- 
evitable. Criticism  is  roused  not  so  much  by  the  practical 
provisions  of  the  Treaty  as  by  the  general  spirit  animating 
it.  It  is,  in  effect,  a  peace  of  revenge  uninspired  by  one 
generous  gesture  as  regards  the  future.  It  is  a  peace  of 
tired  old  men  with  their  eyes  fixed  on  the  hatreds  and  ani- 
mosities of  the  past,  and  their  minds  obsessed  by  the  ter- 
ritorial jealousies  of  the  old  diplomacy.  Consequently  it 
has  outraged  and  disgusted  the  young  generation  just 
stepping  from  school  and  college  into  the  political  arena. 
Youth  is  generous  and  impulsive;  it  is  the  age  of  chiv- 
alry and  high  ideals.  The  younger  men  and  women  ask 
what  this  Treaty  is  doing  for  the  future,  at  what  point 
it  is  binding  up  the  wounds  of  Europe,  what  contribution  it 
makes  towards  creating  that  "new  world"  of  which  pol- 
iticians discoursed  so  eloquently.  The  rising  generation 
has  a  right  to  demand  an  answer  to  these  questions.  It 
is  their  future  which  is  at  stake  in  the  matter.  The  pro- 
visions of  the  Peace  are  burthens  laid  upon  their  shoul- 
ders. Naturally  they  are  concerned  with  the  contents  of 
the  load.     But  from  no  direction  comes  any  satisfactory 


254  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

reply  to  these  inquiries,  only  the  dull  echo  returned  by 
barriers  of  hatred  and  negation. 

Yet  another  consequence  results  from  this  state  of  af- 
fairs, the  seriousness  of  which  has  not,  I  think,  been  fully 
grasped.    The  failures  of  democratic  statesmen,  so  called, 
in  this  matter  of  the  Peace  have  jeopardised  the  whole 
principle  of  democratic  government.     "If  this  is  the  best 
that  the  statesmen  of  the  three  great  democracies  can  pro- 
duce, then  away  with  such  a  sham  and  failure  as  democ- 
racy has  proved  itself  to  be.    Let  us  try  something  else." 
This  spirit  is  stirring  in  many  quarters.    It  leads  young 
minds,  at  once  eager  and  disappointed,  to  explore  the 
alternatives  of  anarchism,  direct  action,  Bolshevism,  and 
the  rest.    We  may  deplore  the  direction  in  which  their 
ideas  are  moving.  Let  politicians  in  power  recognise,  how- 
ever, that  this  spirit  of  revolt  is  rooted  in  the  vast  failures 
of  the  old  diplomacy.    Is  there  yet  time  to  recognise  the 
hopeless  dead  end  into  which  we  have  blundered  and  to  re- 
trace our  steps  along  a  better  way  ?  The  first  condition  is 
to  purge  our  minds  from  some  of  the  illusions  which  run 
riot  among  the  men  who  control  the  machine.   The  peace 
of  Europe  cannot  be  secured  by  any  variation  of  the  old 
tortuous  adjustments  concerned  with  the  balance  of  power. 
Strategical  frontiers,  military  dispositions,  the  creation  of 
buffer  states,  leave  the  problem  exactly  where  it  stood. 
Neither  will  the  effort  to  reduce  a  feared  and  hated  enemy 
to  a  condition  perilously  akin  to  that  of  economic  servi- 
tude dispel  the  menace  of  a  future  appeal  to  arms.     No 
nation  can  lay  enduring  shackles  on  the  li-fe  of  another, 
as  the  history  of  Germany  from  Jena  to  Leipzig  proves 
conclusively.     But  as  that  suggestive  period  also  shows, 
the  effort  to  oppress  and  dominate,  so  far  from  crushing 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    255 

the  spirit  of  a  people,  rouses  it  to  the  highest  point  of 
effort  and  endeavour.  The  German  poets  of  the  Libera- 
tion period  have  sung  in  vain  if  they  have  not  taught  that 
lesson  to  an  unheeding  world. 

The  peaceful  relations  of  nations  cannot  be  achieved 
through  the  strategy  of  force  and  the  tactics  of  hatred.  A 
change  of  heart,  a  new  moral  orientation  are  essential  if 
the  world  is  not  once  again  to  become  a  shambles.  Such 
a  spirit  can  only  permeate  the  existing  welter  little  by  little. 
We  cannot  afiford  to  take  risks  with  the  ruthless  and 
wicked  people  who  in  many  instances  control  the  destinies 
of  nations.  But  the  touchstone  of  statesmanship  at  the 
present  time  is  the  degree  to  which  it  is  helping  or  it  is  hin- 
dering the  forces  which  make  for  sanity  and  reconcilia- 
tion ;  the  degree  to  which  it  clears  away  barriers  or  helps 
to  erect  them.  Nations,  like  individuals,  can  only  live  and 
grow  through  what  is  highest  and  best  in  themselves. 
Further,  unless  nations  are  prepared  to  treat  each  other 
with  some  measure  of  confidence  and  goodwill,  and  to 
have  some  sort  of  faith  in  each  other's  good  intentions, 
the  moral  chaos  remains  insoluble. 

It  is  my  earnest  wish  in  this  matter  to  write  with  com- 
plete understanding  and  sympathy  of  the  position  of 
France.  French  fears  regarding  the  future  are  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  Peace.  The  fact  is 
so  well  known  that  I  cannot  feel  any  useful  purpose  is 
served  by  a  refusal  frankly  to  face  the  issues  involved.  The 
Entente,  if  it  is  to  flourish,  must  draw  its  strength  from 
truth  and  candour.  It  cannot  live  on  shams  and  make- 
believes.  The  better  mind  of  England  is  disturbed  in- 
creasingly over  the  policy  pursued  by  the  Entente,  and 
feels  that  the  influence  of  France  is  dragging  us  along  a 


256  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

path  remote  from  the  traditional  views  of  the  British 
democracy.  We  must  recognise  this  fact  and  face  its  im- 
pHcations,  if  sooner  or  later  a  point  of  sharp  collision  is 
to  be  avoided  between  the  two  countries,  France  and  Eng- 
land are  united  by  ties  of  a  sacred  and  abiding  character. 
Side  by  side  have  they  upheld  the  torch  of  liberty  while 
the  foundations  of  the  world  rocked.  The  blood  of  their 
sons  has  been  poured  out  on  hundreds  of  battlefields  in  a 
common  defence  of  liberty.  The  courage  and  the  forti- 
tude of  France  during  the  struggle  was  an  example  and 
an  inspiration  to  the  whole  Alliance.  Why  are  we  con- 
scious, therefore,  to-day  of  so  heavy  a  fall  in  all  those 
values  which  made  France  heroic  during  the  war  ?  Again 
we  must  bring  patience  and  understanding  to  a  situation 
fraught  v.^ith  possibilities  so  grave  of  future  trouble. 

France  to-day  is  dominated  by  two  sentiments,  one  is 
hatred,  the  other  is  fear.  Both  are  evil  counsellors,  both 
are  destroyers  of  life.  France  through  fear  is  pursuing  a 
policy  the  only  result  of  which  can  be  to  make  the  con- 
firmation of  her  fears  inevitable.  Now,  it  is  not  for  us 
English  while  recognising  these  facts  to  pass  any  sort 
of  censorious  judgment  on  them.  Had  we  suffered  like 
France,  had  we  endured  what  she  has  been  called  upon 
to  endure,  in  all  probability  our  own  spirit  would  have 
been  even  more  black  and  more  bitter.  Such  powers  of 
detachment  as  we  may  possess  do  not  imply  the  least  merit 
on  our  part.  It  is  only  because  relatively  we  have  suffered 
less  that  we  can  afford  possibly  to  be  more  broad  and 
more  generous  in  our  outlook.  France  for  the  last  fifty 
years  has  lived  under  the  shadow  of  a  nightmare.  En- 
ticed into  war  in  1870  by  the  devilish  skill  of  Bismarck, 
she  was  forced  to  drink  to  the  full  of  the  German  cup  of 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    257 

humiliation.  Marvellous  though  her  economic  and  pol- 
itical recovery  after  the  war,  she  could  feel  no  security 
about  her  eastern  frontier.  The  aggressive  character  of 
German  diplomacy  cast  a  deepening  shadow  on  her  life. 
Periodically  she  was  threatened ;  periodically  she  was  in- 
sulted. Finally  came  a  climax  of  horror — the  invasion 
of  her  soil,  the  devastation  of  town  and  country,  the 
agony  of  four  and  a  half  years  of  a  war  unparalleled 
in  its  ghastliness.  Little  wonder,  therefore,  that  France 
sees  red  all  the  time  and  that  she  demands  an  eye  for  an 
eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth. 

I  often  think  that  if  in  the  course  of  the  war  it  had  so 
happened  that  a  strip  of  German  soil  near  the  Rhine  had 
been  laid  waste,  it  might  in  the  long  run  have  promoted 
the  peace  of  Europe.  I  do  not  say  this  from  any  desire 
to  destroy  German  homes  or  cause  suffering  to  German 
women  and  children.  But  one  of  the  difficulties  in  deal- 
ing with  France  to-day  is  that  she  feels  that  her  wounds 
gape  wider  than  those  of  any  other  nation.  She  is  haunted 
by  the  horror  of  her  own  experience,  to  which  no  enemy 
country  affords  a  parallel.  Her  devastated  areas  do  not, 
so  to  speak,  cancel  out.  Had  they  cancelled  out,  even 
in  a  limited  measure,  she  would  have  lost  something  of 
the  sense  of  unique  and  peculiar  outrage  which  fills  France 
to-day  with  a  bitterness  as  of  death.  Let  me  repeat  it  is 
not  for  us  to  pass  any  censorious  judgment  on  this  atti- 
tude. Unlike  France,  we  are  not  up  against  the  fence  of 
a  land  frontier  with  an  hereditary  foe  on  the  other  side. 
But  we  fail  in  our  duty  if  in  a  spirit  of  entire  friendli- 
ness and  understanding  we  do  not  urge  her  to  consider 
where  this  policy  is  leading. 

The  quarrel  between  Germany  and  France  is  a  very 


258  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

old  story.  It  did  not  start,  as  many  people  imagine  care- 
lessly, in  1870.  Long  before  that  date  a  barrier  of  bit- 
ter memories  had  already  been  piled  up  between  the  two 
countries.  Germany  too  has  had  her  grievances,  heavy 
grievances,  in  the  past  against  France.  Louis  xiv.  carried 
fire  and  sword  through  the  Rhineland  and  Palatinate  dur- 
ing the  wars  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  His  generals 
left  an  imperishable  memory  of  outrage.  The  Napoleonic 
occupation  laid  a  hand  of  iron  subsequently  on  the  Ger- 
man people.  Read  the  poets  of  the  Liberation  period, 
Arndt,  Riickert,  Korner,  Schenkendorf,  and  realise  how 
deep  that  iron  bit  into  the  soul  of  the  nation.  Travel 
among  the  Rhineland  towns  and  .study  their  history.  It 
is  one  long  record  of  French  occupation  and  destruction 
either  in  the  seventeenth  or  early  nineteenth  century — 
Mainz,  the  cathedral  used  as  a  magazine  and  barracks; 
Cologne,  horses  stabled  in  the  cathedral  nave;  Speyer, 
town  and  cathedral  ravaged  with  fire  and  sword  by  the 
generals  of  Louis  xiv.,  ruffians  who  exhumed  and  scat- 
tered to  the  winds  the  bones  of  eight  German  emperors; 
Worms,  reduced  in  1689  to  a  smouldering  heap  of  ruins; 
Aachen,  Bonn,  Coblenz,  Baden,  all  with  bitter  memories 
of  military  conquest  and  occupation. 

If  I  draw  attention  to  these  old  unhappy  far-off  things 
it  is  not  from  any  desire  to  rake  gratuitously  among  pain- 
ful memories  of  the  past.  But  the  German  attitude  to- 
wards France  can  never  be  understood  unless  due  weight 
is  given  to  these  black  and  bitter  pages  in  their  earlier 
relations.  France  must  face  candidly  the  historical  truth 
that  Prussian  militarism  came  into  being  as  a  reply  to  the 
aggressions  first  of  Louis  xiv.,  then  of  Napoleon.  The 
sins  of  older  generations  of  French  rulers  have  been  vis- 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    259 

ited  on  innocent  heads,  but  the  sins  were  there.  The  mem- 
ory of  French  tyranny  in  former  years  was  the  driving 
force  which  welded  the  German  states  together.  To  the 
average  German  1870  appeared  the  vindication  of  his  na- 
tional honour,  the  signal  proof  that  the  humiliations  of  the 
Napoleonic  period  were  wiped  out.  Once  again  the  old 
coil  of  evil  is  seen  unfolding  itself  in  a  monotonous  suc- 
cession of  wrongs  done  and  revenge  exacted,  the  revenge 
creating  new  wrongs  which  in  turn  lead  to  further  strife. 

Are  we  prepared  to  weave  yet  further  sequences  of  this 
disastrous  character?  Or  shall  the  spirit  of  man  rise  up 
and  say  the  coil  must  be  broken  ? 

It  is  this  problem  that  has  to  be  faced  with  both  tact 
and  candour  so  far  as  the  French  are  concerned.  We 
sympathise  to  the  full  with  their  sufferings  and  their 
wrongs.  All  that  is  best,  however,  in  the  British  democ- 
racy will  neither  sympathise  with  nor  support  policies 
which  if  pursued  to  their  logical  ends  can  only  work  fresh 
havoc  for  Europe.  It  is  strange  that  the  French,  after 
their  bitter  experience  of  1870,  seem  unable  to  apply  les- 
sons wholly  learnt  by  themselves  as  to  the  strength  of 
national  feeling.  It  is  impossible  to  stifle  the  spirit  of  a 
people  whatever  it  may  be.  Germany  failed  completely 
in  her  effort  to  crush  France.  It  is  no  less  hopeless  for 
France  to  think  that  she  can  crush  Germany.  Yet  at  bot- 
tom the  destruction  of  Germany  is  the  aim  of  the  Chau- 
vinists, who  have  considerable  influence  at  the  moment  in 
the  direction  of  French  policy.  For  people  of  this  type  the 
European  situation  is  the  same  to-day  as  it  was  in  1912. 
It  is  as  though  the  years  19 14- 191 8  had  not  happened. 
The  German  nightmare  oppresses  them  as  much  as  it  has 
ever   done.     They   still   envisage   Germany  as   a  great 


260  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

military  power  whose  existence  is  one  long  menace  to  the 
security  of  France.    They  want  to  see  Germany  crippled 
beyond  the  hope  of  restoration,  though  with  an  entire  lack 
of  logic  they  also  want  Germany  to  pay  them  large  sums 
of  money.     Many  French  soldiers  and  politicians  feel  it 
is  a  great  mistake  to  miss  the  present  golden  opportunity 
for  making,  as  they  think,  a  complete  end  of  a  formidable 
enemy.    Among  them  are  men  -who  would  welcome  any 
pretext  which  might  justify  the  further  crushing  of  Ger- 
many.   Theory  reacts  of  course  on  practice.     The  actual 
policy  pursued  in  the  Occupied  Area  is  often  irritating  and 
exasperating  in  the  highest  degree.     Feeling  between  the 
Germans  and  the  French  has  to  my  knowledge  grown  more 
sore  and  more  bitter  during  the  last  year.     But  pinpricks 
will  not  produce  the  indemnity,  and  an  atmosphere  of 
general  exasperation  does  not  promote  the  best  interests 
of  France.    Judged  by  rough  and  ready  standards  of  ex- 
pediency, it  ought  to  be  clear  that  less  than  forty  millions 
of  people  cannot  coerce  indefinitely  more  than  sixty  mil- 
lions of  tough,  hard-working  men  and  women.    This  blunt 
truth  governs  the  present  situation.    Such  a  policy  if  pur- 
sued is  bound  to  fail.     But  before  it  breaks  down  in  the 
turmoil    of    another    war    it    may    extinguish    the    last 
hope  of  saving  European  civilisation.     Europe  presents 
to-day  common  needs  and  common  problems.    It  will  re- 
cover as  a  whole  or  collapse  as  a  whole.    No  illusion  can 
be  more  fatal  than  the  theory  that  the  safety  and  pros- 
perity of  one  member  of  the  European  family  can  be  se- 
cured by  the  dismemberment  and  destruction  of  another. 
Statesmanship,  while  securing  for  France  necessary  ma- 
terial guarantees  of  safety,  should  have  sought  to  win 
her  round  to  a  wiser  appreciation  of  the  principles  on 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    261 

which  her  future  security  must  rest.  Similarly  as  re- 
gards Germany;  while  exacting  adequate  reparation  and 
reducing  her  militarists  to  impotence,  statesmanship 
should  no  less  seek  to  encourage  the  growth  of  a  new 
temper  among  her  people  which  will,  by  making  them 
decent  and  responsible  members  of  the  European  family, 
render  any  repetition  of  past  horrors  impossible. 

Lamentable  indeed  was  the  failure  of  the  Peace  Con- 
ference to  make  any  contribution  to  these  fundamental 
principles.  The  Peace  Treaty  registers  accurately  the 
violences  and  hatreds  of  the  war.  To  the  creation  of 
a  better  state  of  affairs  in  the  future  it  makes  no  contribu- 
tion of  any  kind.  Whatever  the  attitude  of  France,  the 
moral  failure  of  England  and  America  as  regards  the 
exercise  of  any  restraining  influence  is  far  more  culpable. 
The  collapse  of  President  Wilson,  a  man  of  high  ideals 
but  without  the  power  of  dealing  with  facts  needful  to  give 
them  practical  effect,  is  one  of  the  most  tragic  chapters 
in  history.  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  gifted  as  he  is  with  vision 
and  imagination,  could  have  thrown  the  light  of  his  in- 
disputable qualities  had  he  so  willed  over  the  chaos  of 
Europe.  Unhappily  he  became  involved  in  a  sordid  chap- 
ter of  domestic  politics,  the  consequences  of  which  hung 
round  his  neck  like  a  millstone.  The  present  chaos  of 
Europe  is  in  no  small  degree  a  consequence  of  the  Gen- 
eral Election  of  December  191 8  and  the  temper  and  pol- 
icies it  inculcated.  The  British  nation  was  rushed  on 
that  occasion  with  fatal  results  to  the  cause  of  perma- 
nent peace.  The  Peace  Conference  met  at  Paris  in  an  at- 
mosphere charged  with  passion,  and  passion  weighted 
the  scales  at  every  critical  issue.  Meanwhile  the  democ- 
racies of  the  world,  impotent  to  control  peace  negotiations 


262  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

the  spirit  and  policy  of  which  became  increasingly  un- 
acceptable to  all  thinking  people,  looked  on  helplessly 
while  the  unwieldy  vessel  of  the  Conference,  buffeted  first 
by  one  influence  and  then  by  another,  drifted  on  a  stormy 
sea  of  opportunism  towards  the  rocks  of  strife.  As  for 
the  result,  it  was  well  denounced  as  the  Peace  of  Drag- 
on's Teeth  by  Mr,  J.  L.  Garvin,  who  throughout  the  tests 
of  war  and  peace  devoted  his  eloquence  and  great  powers 
of  idealism  to  the  cause  first  of  victory  and  then  of 
European  appeasement. 

The  Treaty  as  it  stands  has  sown  the  world  with  fresh 
discord,  and  ultimately  can  lead  to  nothing  but  repudia- 
tion and  revenge.  Still  further,  the  Treaty  as  it  stands 
is  unworkable.  Already  it  shows  signs  of  breaking  down 
under  the  weight  of  its  own  contradictions.  By  demand- 
ing too  much  it  bids  fair  to  create  a  situation  in  which 
nothing  will  be  obtainable.  It  is  not  business  to  tell  a 
bankrupt  he  must  pay  thirty  shillings  in  the  pound,  and 
at  the  same  time  sit  on  his  head  so  as  to  make  it  impos- 
sible for  him  to  earn  thirty  pence.  If  a  bankrupt  is  to 
discharge  his  debts,  he  must  be  put  into  a  position  to  earn. 
If  he  is  to  be  loaded  with  chains,  that  spectacle  may  have 
its  own  satisfaction,  but  it  will  not  produce  money  on 
the  credit  side.  A  hungry  bankrupt  Germany  cannot  work 
to  pay  off  the  indemnity  on  which  France  has  just  claim. 
If  Europe  crumbles  further;  if  Bolshevism  finds  a  new 
recruiting  ground  in  the  anger  and  despair  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple— where  is  France  likely  to  stand  in  this  matter  of 
payment  ? 

We  must  in  common  fairness  recognise  how  serious  are 
the  difficulties  even  of  a  well-intentioned  German  Govern- 
ment in  carrying  out  the  demands  it  has  to  meet.  The  peo- 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    263 

pie  as  a  whole  are  inexperienced  politically.  The  nation 
has  had  no  training  in  self-government.  It  has  been  run 
in  the  past  by  a  highly  efficient  bureaucracy  saturated  in 
autocratic  and  Bismarckian  traditions.  To-day  the  old 
machinery  of  government  is  in  ruins.  We  cannot  expect 
that  Germany  with  a  wave  of  the  wand  can  suddenly  pro- 
duce public  men  and  civil  servants  of  the  type  with  which 
we  are  familiar.  The  cry  that  the  government  is  in  the 
hands  of  men  "steeped  in  militarism"  is  far  from  untrue. 
The  real  problem,  however,  is  to  find  men  of  any  sort  of 
training  or  experience  in  government  work  outside  the 
close  ring  of  Prussianism.  Inevitably  the  public  has  to 
rely,  anyway  for  the  present,  on  officials  trained  in  the 
old  theory  that  a  lie  was  a  virtue  so  long  as  it  served  the 
State. 

From  this  grave  disadvantage  there  is  no  immediate 
escape,  and  the  circumstance  calls  for  special  vigilance  and 
care  in  our  relations  with  the  German  official  classes.  We 
can,  however,  help  or  hinder  the  growth  of  another  spirit. 
In  so  far  as  we  support  a  democratically  constituted  Ger- 
man Government  and  give  it  some  encouragement  and 
consideration,  we  shall  tend  to  produce  men  of  a  new 
type.  But  if  these  early  steps  in  democratic  government 
are  at  each  stage  to  be  associated  with  rebuffs  and  humili- 
ations, we  play  straight,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  an 
earlier  chapter,  into  the  hands  of  the  military  party.  The 
old  gang,  though  they  dare  not  raise  their  heads  at  the 
moment,  are  a  compact  body  among  themselves,  and  de- 
sire nothing  so  ardently  as  the  failure  of  constitutional 
government  in  Germany.  We  cannot  expect  German 
mentality  to  be  changed  in  a  night.  The  new  forces  must 
be  given  time  and  space  in  which  to  develop. 


264  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

Further,  they  must  be  given  encouragement.  The  situ- 
ation in  Germany  to-day  is  in  many  respects  dark  and  dif- 
ficult. The  reactionary  forces  are  entrenched  strongly  in 
more  than  one  direction.  We  must  not  ignore  the  evil  in- 
fluence of  some  tens  of  thousands  of  embittered  and  irre- 
concilable soldiers  and  of  certain  officials  of  the  old 
regime,  whose  careers  have  been  broken  and  who  have 
nothing  to  hope  from  any  constitution  acceptable  to  the 
democratic  mind  of  Europe.  Again,  the  old  fire-eating 
doctrines  are  still  to  the  fore  at  many  centres  of  educa- 
tion and  have  an  unfortunate  influence  on  the  student  life 
— a  serious  fact  borne  out  by  much  evidence.  Thirdly, 
there  is  the  danger  of  the  irrecoverable  rifle  in  the  back 
garden — an  impossible  administrative  problem,  as  we 
have  found  to  our  cost  in  Ireland.  Undesirable  factors  of 
this  character  will  have  proportionate  weight  in  Germany 
just  so  far  as  the  spirit  of  unrest  and  despair  spreads 
through  the  people.  They  can  only  be  reduced  to  in- 
significance through  the  establishment  of  an  ordered  and 
settled  government  which  is  in  a  position  to  maintain  a 
decent  level  of  life  for  the  nation,  and  a  life  consistent 
with  a  fair  measure  of  national  self-respect. 

The  revision  of  the  Peace  Treaty  on  lines  which  will 
bring  it  into  harmony  with  enduring  principles  of  justice 
and  right  is  the  crying  need  of  the  hour.  A  practical  point 
in  connection  with  the  present  situation  should  not  be 
overlooked.  The  Germans  know  as  well  as  we  do  that 
modifications  of  the  Treaty  are  inevitable.  So  long,  how- 
ever, as  the  present  unhappy  instrument  holds  the  field, 
the  doubtful  clauses  oflfer  a  most  undesirable  scope  for 
duplicity  and  intrigue.  The  men  of  the  old  tradition  to 
whom   I   have   just  referred   are   experts   in  fishing  in 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?   265 

troubled  waters.  They  have  sufficient  skill  to  play  off 
Allied  scruples  and  hesitations  one  against  another.  What 
we  should  aim  at  is  a  Treaty  just  and  reasonable  in  its 
demands,  stripped  of  provisions  which  involve  exasperat- 
ing administrative  problems.  Above  all,  the  Treaty  should 
be  revised  to  command  the  moral  assent  of  the  Allied 
democracies,  an  assent  wholly  lacking  in  the  case  of  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles.  Then  the  provisions  should  be  en- 
forced rigidly,  and  the  German  Government  made  plainly 
to  understand  that  there  is  to  be  neither  humbug  nor 
shirking  about  their  fulfilment.  There  cannot  be  two 
opinions  about  Germany  making  the  fullest  material  resti- 
tution in  her  power  for  injuries  done.  Opinions  may  and 
do  differ  fundamentally  as  to  the  manner  and  spirit  in 
which  these  claims  should  be  put  forward. 

If  politicians  and  statesmen  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  cry 
of  a  world  in  distress  and  to  a  growing  demand  that  the 
policies  pursued  should  be  reasonable  and  constructive,  the 
voice  of  the  people  themselves  swelling  in  volume  bids  fair 
to  overwhelm  all  triflers  with  peace.  For  despite  the 
bluster  of  the  fire-eaters  and  a  Press  which  encourages 
their  empty  violence,  the  world  is  sick  of  blood  and  strife. 
Germany  has  suffered  such  a  defeat  as  history  has  never 
known.  Sixty  millions  of  people,  however,  virile,  dis- 
ciplined, hard-working,  cannot  be  obliterated  from  the 
map.  Greatly  though  certain  zealots  may  desire  the  com- 
plete annihilation  of  the  German  tribes,  vapourings  of 
this  kind  are  remote  from  the  realm  of  practical  politics. 
The  statesmanship  which  at  the  moment  haunts  the  Chan- 
cellories of  Europe  would  not  appear  to  be  of  very  high 
quality.  But  statesmanship  of  an  order  infinitely  higher 
might  well  recoil  appalled  from  such  problems  as  would 


266  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

result  from  any  general  collapse  of  the  German  Gov- 
ernment and  people. 

A  far-sighted  policy,  which  \vhile  never  failing  in 
fairness  is  withal  generous  and  reasonable,  is  as  the  poles 
removed  from  that  of  a  weak  sentimentality  which  re- 
fuses to  face  the  difficult  facts  of  the  present  situation. 
The  withdrawal  of  any  great  nation  from  the  urgent  task 
of  work  and  production  means  loss  and  detriment  to  the 
world  at  large.  Hence  the  need  to  let  Germany  both 
eat  and  work ;  more,  the  need  to  help  her  start  afresh. 
She  lies  a  beaten  and  prostrate  nation  to-day.  We  may 
push  her  over  the  brink  and  so  precipitate  new  catastro- 
phes. Or  without  sentiment  and  without  illusion  we  may 
take  a  longer  view ;  we  may  direct  our  policy  towards  ulti- 
mate ends  of  appeasement,  towards  the  establishment  of  a 
saner  and  a  better  Europe  unhaunted  by  the  menace  of 
vast  aggressive  forces,  towards  the  recovery  by  Ger- 
many herself  of  her  old  birthright  of  music,  poetry,  and 
philosophy  bartered  by  her  for  evil  dreams  of  world 
power  and  domination.  That  new  order  cannot  be  found- 
ed on  any  basis  of  enduring  hatred.  We  cannot  offer 
the  ideal  of  the  League  of  Nations  with  the  one  hand, 
and  policies  which  resolve  themselves  into  starvation  and 
oppression  with  the  other.  The  policies  are  incompatible, 
and  we  must  choose  between  them. 

The  miserable  suggestion  frequently  advanced,  that  as 
a  victorious  Germany  would  have  ground  us  to  powder, 
we  should  do  to  her  as  she  would  have  done  to  us,  can- 
not be  sustained  for  a  moment.  Is  our  policy  to  be  di- 
rected by  German  standards  and  influenced  by  German 
principles?  All  along  we  have  proclaimed  loudly  that 
the  war  was  fought  so  that  the  spirit  and  the  principles 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    267 

of  Germany  should  no  longer  terrorise  the  world.  To 
adopt  her  principles,  even  in  some  modified  form,  is  to 
give  her  in  defeat  a  victory  lost  by  her  in  the  field.  Our 
moral  pretensions  in  this  struggle  have  been  very  high 
ones,  and  moral  pretensions  are  intolerable  unless  some 
effort  is  made  to  live  up  to  them. 

Not  all  the  dark  and  sordid  happenings  which  wait  in- 
evitably on  five  years  of  world  conflagration,  not  all  the 
dragging  in  the  mire  of  many  a  noble  idea,  should  make 
us  forget  the  great  principles  of  liberty  and  justice  which 
drew  us  originally  into  the  war.  It  was  no  idle  phrase 
that  England  staked  everything  for  an  ideal  when  the 
wrong  done  to  Belgium  brought  her  into  the  field.  At 
no  moment  in  her  history  has  she  risen  to  moral  heights 
so  great  as  when  she  stepped  forth  in  August  19 14  to 
vindicate  the  cause  of  the  oppressed.  The  principles  to 
which  she  consecrated  herself  in  that  supreme  moment  of 
testing  demand  a  service  no  less  inexorable  from  us  to- 
day, though  to  hold  by  them  steadily  in  the  dark  and  stony 
ways  of  peace  is  proving,  as  we  all  know  to  our  cost,  a 
test  of  endurance  greater  far  than  that  of  the  actual  con- 
flict. Yet  surely  failure  at  this  point  is  to  fail  our  dead 
most  miserably — the  men  who  died  with  the  light  of  a 
great  vision  in  their  eyes :  that  vision  of  a  world  purged 
from  evil  through  their  sacrifice.  No  miracles  of  leader- 
ship won  the  war.  It  was  won  by  the  grit  and  by  the  en- 
durance of  the  great  mass  of  the  British  peoples.  And 
where  statesmanship  has  failed,  we  look  to  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  nation  to  win  the  peace.  It  rests  with  our  coun- 
trymen to  see  that  there  is  no  further  deepening  of  the 
ruts  of  hatred  and  mutual  ignorance,  for  what  England 
wills  in  this  matter  is  decisive  as  regards  the  future. 


268  WATCHING  ON  THE  RHINE 

And  France — France  who  was  in  such  a  special,  sense 
the  soul  of  the  war?  Is  it  too  much  to  ask  that  France, 
despite  her  sufferings  and  sacrifices,  should  brace  herself 
for  one  supreme  effort,  nobler  than  all  which  have  gone 
before — the  effort  to  make  herself  greater  than  the  wrong 
done  to  her?  Then  would  her  triumph  over  the  dark  and 
evil  forces  which  brought  about  the  war  be  supreme  in- 
deed. France  who  means  so  much  to  the  mind  of  Europe, 
who  has  given  to  it  eternal  principles  of  truth  and  liberty 
— will  not  France  in  this  matter  rise  to  the  level  of  her 
own  heroic  stature? 

The  established  democracies  of  the  world  have  in  these 
troubled  times  to  hold  up  each  other's  arms.  So  long  as 
the  great  Republic  of  the  West  stands  aloof,  the  chain  of 
brotherhood  and  common  effort  is  broken  at  a  vital  point. 
The  darkness  is  greater,  the  task  infinitely  more  hard, 
because  she  has  withdrawn  her  companionship  from  what 
should  have  been  a  united  purpose.  The  intervention  of 
America  led  to  the  complete  overthrow  of  Germany. 
Without  her  great  resources  flung  on  the  Allied  side  the 
war  must  have  had  a  very  different  end  resulting  in  com- 
promise, not  victory.  We  appreciate  her  difficulties;  we 
do  not  presume  to  dictate.  We  would,  however,  beg  her 
to  remember  she  too  has  responsibilities  as  regards  the 
burthen  of  Europe.  But  though  the  action  of  the  United 
States  may  have  made  the  goal  of  European  appeasement 
more  remote,  more  difficult  to  attain,  the  goal  itself  is 
clear. 

The  Watch  on  the  Rhine  is  of  value  just  so  far  as  it 
helps  to  clear  our  minds  as  to  the  true  objectives  that 
we  are  seeking.  The  soldiers  have  done  their  work  well 
and  truly  in  the  war.   Their  task  accomplished,  its  results 


WATCHMAN— WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?    269 

have  now  passed  largely  into  other  hands.  Our  unworthi- 
ness  and  unfitness  to  carry  so  great  a  responsibility  are  but 
too  painfully  apparent.  Yet  the  responsibility  is  there. 
The  dead  have  in  special  measure  left  a  sacrifice  to  be  per- 
fected. The  torch  fell  lighted  from  their  hands.  Su- 
preme shame  would  it  be  if  it  suffers  extinction  through 
the  sordid  ambitions  and  mean  desires  of  men  who  live 
because  other  men  have  died.  The  threat  of  moral  bank- 
ruptcy, real  as  it  is,  can  only  be  averted  through  a  steady 
devotion  to  ideal  ends.  Those  ideal  ends  have  been  sung 
by  one  of  our  younger  poets  in  words  which,  to  me  at 
least,  sum  up  the  faith  I  have  endeavoured  haltingly  to 
express  as  regards  the  future: 

"This  then  is  yours ;  to  build  exultingly 
High  and  yet  more  high 
The  knowledgeable  towers  above  base  wars 
And  sinful  surges,  reaching  up  to  lay 
Dishonouring  hands  upon  your  work,  and  drag 
From  their  uprightness  your  desires  to  lag 
Among  low  places  with  a  common  gait. 
That  so  Man's  mind  not  conquered  by  his  clay, 
May  sit  above  his  fate 
Inhabiting  the  purpose  of  the  stars, 
And  trade  with  his  Eternity." 


THE  END 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAY  1  6  19S5 


Form  L9-Series  4939 


3  1158  01002  7497 


/f/lJn 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  813  307    6 


